FAB becomes first bank in MENA to pilot live transaction on SWIFT blockchain
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), has carried out its first live USD transaction using Swift’s Ledger a Minimum Viable Product, tokenized deposits on SWIFT smart contract settlements enabling 24/7 cross border payments.
Back in July 2026, Swift signed up 17 banks from six continents to try out its blockchain based ledger including First Abu Dhabi bank and Mashreq Bank in UAE. At the time of announcement, SWIFT noted that the banks would be piloting live transactions
When SWIFT first announced its Blockchain settlement project, UAE based Emirates NBD, and First Abu Dhabi Bank, as well as Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB) were part of 30 financial institutions participating.
Now FAB has completed a bilateral transaction with Citi, validated the end-to-end interaction between existing Swift payment messaging, tokenized deposits and distributed ledger infrastructure.
According to the announcement, FAB is the first bank in the Middle East and Africa to reach this milestone, marking an important step in the bank’s digital assets journey.
The Swift Ledger initiative is designed to reduce fragmentation across emerging tokenized money networks by providing a trusted orchestration and interoperability layer and faster always on payments.
The first banks to pilot the SWIFT blockchain where HSBC and Standard Chartered in August this year.
Tokenized deposits remained on participating banks’ balance sheets, while the Swift Ledger coordinated payment commitments and recorded corresponding interbank liabilities without taking custody of funds. Interbank settlement remained separate and was completed through established correspondent banking channels, preserving existing liquidity, risk management and control frameworks.
