Citi, Swift finish test of fast fiat-to-digital payment system

Citi and Swift have concluded a joint test that demonstrated the ability to settle both fiat and digital currencies simultaneously using a Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) model.

The trial, conducted using Swift’s existing network combined with blockchain-based tools, showed that traditional financial infrastructure can synchronize settlement across a fiat account and a digital-asset wallet.

Trial uses Swift network and blockchain-based components

The trial, disclosed on November 14, 2025, was conducted in Singapore based on Swift’s existing messaging rails, with extensions to blockchain connectors, blockchain orchestrators and blockchain smart contracts. 

Citi stated that the experiment showed how assets held within the banking system and those residing on blockchains can be coordinated in a synchronized workflow. The institutions involved stated that this work is part of an effort to understand the infrastructure required to handle transactions involving both account-based money and blockchain-based digital currencies.

Ayesa Latif, Citi’s Head of FX Products, claimed that the test offered insight into how blockchain technology can interact with established financial processes. In addition, Jonathan Ehrenfeld, Swift’s Head of Strategy, noted that the organization’s existing network was used to bridge participants to tokenized environments while maintaining the same point of access used in current operations.

Settlement challenges for stablecoins and tokenized deposits

The trial was created to respond to a growing need identified in Citi research and in Swift discussions with global banks. Citi GPS has projected that the market for stablecoin issuance could reach $1.9 trillion by 2030, driven by regulatory developments and the increasing adoption of stablecoins for various use cases.

According to the report published by the bank, the number of transactions in stablecoins already nears $1 trillion per month. The majority of such transfers are simply temporary flows of value, as beneficiaries of these transactions tend to redeem dollar-denominated tokens in their domestic currency.

Although such a requirement exists, it is challenging to settle between fiat currency accounts and digital-asset wallets. The Fiat positions are usually maintained in the correspondent banks, where the transactions are reversible in case of need. Digital currencies, on the other hand, utilize blockchain wallets, which do not allow reversals. The discrepancy has ensured that synchronized settlement is operationally complicated.

The current foreign-exchange messaging standards (MT30X) developed by Swift can recognize digital assets and verify transactions, but cannot provide instructions that guarantee simultaneous settlement of a fiat-digital pair. The collaborative effort was designed to investigate how the gap could be bridged through the implementation of additional layers of automation.

Step toward standardized PvP models

According to Citi and Swift, the tests are an indication of progress in finding solutions that may be incorporated into larger financial systems, provided regulators and market participants implement them. The utilization of the available infrastructure during the trial was mentioned as a major element, as it enabled the establishments to check the level of interoperability without modifying the current global banking routes.

The organizations mentioned that the second step of work will be to define the possibility of scaling, standardizing, and integrating the tested mechanisms into larger settlement systems. Nevertheless, the pilot was characterized as a single step in the investigation of cross-currency transactions within the environment of simultaneous circulation of fiat and digital currencies.

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