The pilot utilizes Swift’s ISO 20022 messaging standard and ChainLink’s Digital Transfer Agent (DTA) protocol. Swift messages sent via CRE will automatically trigger Onchain smart contract events. This allows institutions to manage fund processes such as subscriptions and redemptions without having to build new identity layers or key management frameworks.
Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov calls development a groundbreaking innovation, showing how transfer agents and financial institutions manage tokenized assets using smart contracts and standardized messaging. Through this pilot, UBS is examining how smart contract-based solutions can be applied to complex fund workflows, while still retaining existing infrastructure.
This is why it’s important for the $100 trillion fund industry
The global fund industry is huge and worth over $100 trillion. However, the process is often slow, fragmented and expensive to maintain. By presenting a “plug and play” model, Chain Link and Swift place this solution as a bridge between the old and the new. Institutions can test tokenized products without investing millions in new infrastructure or risking operational disruption. For SWIFT, which connects more than 11,000 institutions from 200 countries, the integration underscores its ambition to remain the backbone of global financial transactions in a tokenized future.
Building on Chainlink’s AI and Corporate Actions Pilot
The pilot comes just days after $link announced progress on its AI-driven corporate action project. The initiative tested how large language models such as GPT, Gemini and Claude could handle corporate behavior, such as paying dividends and updating mergers, on ISO 20022 compliant records submitted through Swift. Supporters included major clearing houses and banks such as DTCC, EuroClear, UBS, DBS, and BNP Paribas.
Both UBS tokenization and corporate action pilots emphasize how the same ChainLink – Swift infrastructure can be applied to a variety of financial workflows. From funding to corporate events, the goal is to make blockchain and AI practical for traditional institutions.
Swift parallel blockchain push
At the same time, Swift is working with Consensys on a blockchain-based shared ledger for cross-border payments. More than 30 global banks, including HSBC, BNP Paribas and Bank of America, are part of the test. Swift sees this as a step towards an operational, regulated on-chain financial system while unlocking the efficiency of distributed ledger technology while maintaining compliance and global standards.
The whole picture
What is unfolding is not a one-off experiment, but part of a broader roadmap. $ChainLink uses CRE as a universal adapter, turning Swift’s trusted messaging rail into a blockchain trigger. Swift shows that in that part, regulators and banks can adopt tokenized infrastructure without tearing existing pipes. UBS is proof that large banks can run real pilots on today’s live infrastructure.
If these efforts expand, integration could mark one of the most important changes in how global finance works. This overturns traditional institutions into a tokenized economy.
