TL;DR

• Cosmos Labs has announced connectivity between its Tokenization Suite and Swift’s blockchain-based shared ledger.
• Banks can use Cosmos infrastructure to run tokenized-deposit ledgers and connect them with Swift and other networks.
• The system is designed to work with existing banking cores including Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry, Temenos and Hogan.

Cosmos Labs is joining the race to connect traditional bank infrastructure with Swift’s blockchain ledger.

The company announced on September 28 that its Tokenization Suite can provide financial institutions with a route between their internal banking systems, tokenized deposits and Swift’s shared ledger.

The objective is straightforward: let banks use blockchain settlement without rebuilding their entire core.

Existing Bank Ledgers Can Stay In Place

Cosmos says its infrastructure can synchronize with common banking-core systems including Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry, Temenos and Hogan.

A bank can then operate its own tokenized-deposit ledger while connecting that system to external networks.

Those connections can include Swift’s ledger, Canton, Partior, Ethereum and Solana.

Swift provides the shared coordination layer for payments between institutions.

Cosmos provides the software that connects a bank’s internal records and tokenized money to that environment.

The company says its stack can support EVM and Hyperledger Besu deployments, giving institutions flexibility around the ledger technology they use internally.

Banks Are Building Multiple Routes Into The Same New Network

Cosmos is not the only technology provider announcing Swift ledger connectivity.

Oracle and Chainlink have both unveiled their own integrations around the same infrastructure.

That is significant in itself.

When several enterprise software providers build connections into a new payment network at the same time, it suggests banks want optionality rather than a single proprietary route into tokenized deposits.

The models differ.

Cosmos emphasizes connecting bank core systems with institution-controlled tokenized ledgers.

Swift’s ledger then coordinates obligations between participating banks.

The underlying deposits remain liabilities of the banks themselves.

That makes tokenized deposits fundamentally different from public stablecoins issued by non-bank companies.

Both can move on blockchain infrastructure.

The legal claim behind the digital money is different.

Banks increasingly appear interested in supporting both.

The technology layer is becoming crowded as a result.

Cosmos has historically been associated with interoperability between blockchain networks.

Its Tokenization Suite takes that experience into a much more traditional environment.

Instead of connecting two crypto chains, the problem is now connecting bank cores, private ledgers, public blockchains and Swift.

For institutional tokenization to scale, all of those systems eventually need to understand each other.

Cosmos wants to sit in the middle.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

• Major UK banks have completed the first live customer transactions using tokenized sterling deposits on shared infrastructure.
• Participants include Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander.
• The project is using real commercial-bank money and is testing payments including person-to-person transfers and remortgage transactions.

**ID:** B25-09

**Site:** Bitcoinist

**Status:** READY

**Author:** Bitcoinist Editorial Team

**Focus Keyword:** Tokenization

**Image Keyword:** Sterling

**Category:** Technology

**Tags:** UK Finance, Tokenized Deposits, Sterling, Banks, Payments

**Primary Source:** https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/news-and-insight/press-release

The Money Is Still A Bank Deposit

That distinction is central to the project.

A tokenized deposit is not a privately issued stablecoin and it is not a digital pound issued by the Bank of England.

It is a digital representation of money already held as a commercial-bank deposit.

The aim is to retain the legal and regulatory protections attached to ordinary bank money while adding blockchain-style programmability and faster settlement.

Banks participating in the project include Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander.

Quant built the platform, while EY is providing project management and Linklaters developed legal advice and the rulebooks.

The Pilot Is Testing Real Consumer And Financial Use Cases

The project includes person-to-person transfers and remortgage transactions.

UK Finance says digital-asset settlement will also be tested over the coming months.

That makes the experiment broader than sending a token from one test wallet to another.

The industry is trying to show that tokenized bank money can work across institutions and support transactions customers already understand.

Interoperability is the harder part.

Individual banks can build tokenized deposit systems relatively easily.

The real value emerges when a deposit issued by one institution can move across common infrastructure without breaking the protections or controls associated with the banking system.

The project is therefore a useful counterpoint to stablecoins.

Stablecoin companies are increasingly trying to make blockchain dollars look more like regulated bank money.

Banks are moving in the opposite direction, trying to make regulated deposits gain the programmability of blockchain assets.

The two models may eventually meet somewhere in the middle.

For now, the UK pilot shows tokenized deposits moving beyond demonstrations.

Actual customers have now used them to complete live sterling transactions.

*This article was written by the News Desk and edited by [Samuel Rae](https://bitcoinist.com/author/samuelrae/).*