IBM Joins Swift's 17-Bank Pilot, Skipping The Cloud For On-Premises Crypto Infrastructure

• IBM said the connection to Swift gives banks a way to participate through standard ISO 20022 payment messaging.
• Seventeen early-adopter financial institutions, including Citi, HSBC, UBS, BNY and Wells Fargo, are piloting tokenized deposit transactions on Swift’s ledger.
• IBM also introduced an on-premises version of Digital Asset Haven that runs on clients’ own IBM Z or LinuxONE systems without public cloud infrastructure.

IBM (IBM) shares edged lower in early morning trade on Thursday after announcing two updates to its Digital Asset Haven platform, aimed at helping regulated financial institutions manage digital assets without ceding control to public cloud infrastructure. 

IBM stock edged 0.4% lower in pre-market trade amid broader market weakness. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the company fell to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ territory over the past day. 

The updates give banks two additional ways to use IBM’s digital asset infrastructure. One connects to Swift’s blockchain-based shared ledger through standard payment messaging, and the second deploys Digital Asset Haven entirely on their own IBM Z or LinuxONE systems.

IBM Connects Digital Asset Haven To Swift’s Blockchain Ledger

The first update connects Digital Asset Haven clients to Swift’s blockchain-based shared ledger, which was unveiled at Sibos 2025 and developed with a prototype from Consensys.

Swift, which connects more than 12,500 financial institutions across more than 200 markets, developed the ledger with more than 40 banks and moved from the initial concept to live use in nine months.

Seventeen early-adopter institutions, including Citi, HSBC, UBS, BNY and Wells Fargo, are now piloting tokenized deposit transactions on the ledger. IBM’s new ISO 20022 Messaging Adapter is designed to let banks instruct those transactions using the standard payment messaging formats they already use. 

IBM Adds Fully On-Premises Digital Asset Deployment

The second update expands Digital Asset Haven to an on-premises deployment that runs entirely on a client’s own IBM Z or LinuxONE hardware, without requiring a public cloud connection.

IBM said the setup keeps both the software and cryptographic key management within the bank’s own environment. The deployment is supported by Crypto Express hardware security modules and formal key-ceremony processes designed to provide documentation for regulators.

IBM Targets Banks Moving Digital Assets Into Production

IBM’s announcements come as financial institutions move beyond blockchain experiments and begin building infrastructure for production use. J.P. Morgan Payments found that 93% of financial institutions are modernizing their payments infrastructure.

IBM’s two-pronged approach gives it exposure to both sides of the institutional market. Its Swift integration connects Digital Asset Haven to a bank-led shared ledger and existing payment messaging standards, while its on-premises deployment gives institutions that want tighter control the option to keep the infrastructure within their own data centers.

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