The project aims to automate corporate action workflow using Symbiont’s Assembly technology platform. By tapping into the platform’s smart contracts and blockchain capabilities, SWIFT will be able to improve the networking of the 11,000 plus institutions connected to SWIFT at a global level.
In essence, corporate action data from SWIFT messages will be translated by SWIFT’s translator tool and uploaded in Symbiont’s blockchain. According to SWIFT representatives cited by bloomberg.com, Symbiont’s smart contract technology can compare information shared between participants and flag any inconsistencies, contradictions or discrepancies.
The same source highlighted that bringing Symbiont’s smart contracts together with SWIFT’s extensive network can enable both entities to automatically harmonise data from multiple sources of a corporate action event thus improving efficiency.
The collaboration effort also includes companies such as Citigroup Inc., Vanguard and Northern Trust. For now, the pilot will be tested by a select group of participants, and their feedback will allow SWIFT to assess whether to expand it to the wider community.
SWIFT gained attention in February 2022 when it decided to deactivate its network for several Russian banks. This has prompted Russia’s Rostec Group, a government organisation, to develop a blockchain platform for a digital system for international payments capable of replacing the global SWIFT system.
This new digital system for international payments would allow Russia to pay for its imports in its national currency, the rouble, instead of the USD. The new system would also allow foreign countries to pay for their imports from Russia in their national currencies. The blockchain platform on which the international payments system was developed, called CELLS, was put together by the Novosibirsk Institute of Software Systems (NIPS).
In May 2022, SWIFT has begun a new set of CBDC interoperability experiments partnering with Capgemini. The partnership addressed concerns that individual central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could create new domestic silos, fragmenting the global payment landscape. SWIFT was also conducting experiments for tokenised digital assets with Clearstream, Northern Trust, and SETL.
The Capgemini partnership aimed to enable interoperability between different types of CBDCs, some of which might be centralised, and others using blockchain. The tests explored interlinking disparate systems via the SWIFT platform. This way, a cross-border payment would link the origin CBDC system to SWIFT and from there on to the destination CBDC system.
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