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SWIFT, Europe’s largest financial messaging network, has pointed to a key hurdle that blockchain technology can address: the so-called “last mile” problem, which arises after funds reach the beneficiary bank.
SWIFT said its messaging layer has become faster following the ISO 20022 implementation. The ISO 20022 standard is used by roughly 80% of SWIFT-compliant major banks, with full reach targeted by late 2026. However, the “last mile” issue persists when payments are delayed or not processed due to legal requirements or legacy infrastructure.
Under a new SWIFT payment scheme, banks including JP Morgan Payments, Garanti BBVA, Santander and HSBC are piloting instant payment rails. In these trials, Ripple’s XRP Ledger is described as having a role through on-demand liquidity (ODL), with XRP positioned as a bridge asset alongside other DLT-based tokens.
Ripple’s technology is presented as addressing inefficiencies highlighted by SWIFT, including limited transparency, high transaction costs and slow payment windows. The article attributes this to a combination of the decentralized public ledger (XRPL), RippleNet’s enterprise payment solution, and the native XRP token.
It contrasts SWIFT’s legacy transfer timelines—described as taking up to 3–5 business days—with XRP Ledger transaction processing time, described as around 3–5 seconds. The content also notes that SWIFT’s prior testing of XRP, HBAR and XLM indicated the network is not focused on selecting a single “winner.”
The article links Ripple’s potential contribution to interoperability and cites Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s earlier prediction that it could capture 14% of SWIFT’s $155 trillion annualized trading volume. It also states that current daily trading volume on XRP is around $2–3 billion per day.
For network capacity, the article says the XRP Ledger can handle 1,500 transactions per second.
In the “last mile” framing, the article explains that SWIFT messages may travel quickly, but once a payment arrives at the recipient’s bank, it can be delayed by local rules, manual checks, domestic clearing systems and bank processes—accounting for a large share of total processing time.
It further argues that XRP Ledger is designed for near-instant final settlement, describing it as enabling final value in seconds rather than after back-office processing. The content also states that Ripple’s ODL already uses XRP for real-time cross-border payments across dozens of corridors, with activity concentrated in Asia, Latin America and emerging markets.
The article states it is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. It adds that trading in forex, cryptocurrencies and CFDs involves a considerable risk of loss.
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