One hub, many rails: preparing payment operations for tokenised value
Always-on money needs always-on controls: what Swift's tokenised deposits mean for payment operations
On 8 October 2026, the NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum brought banks, payment service providers, fintechs, merchants, regulators and technology providers to Dubai. At the centre of one discussion was a question banks increasingly face: as instant and cross-border payments become more common, how can institutions keep pace with customer expectations?
Ten days earlier, Swift had offered a glimpse of what that future might look like. On 28 September, it reported that most of the 17 first-mover banks on its blockchain ledger had used it for 24/7 real-time payments, sending tokenised value between Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Payments ran in EUR, GBP, HKD, SGD and USD, for institution-to-institution settlement, corporate treasury and interbank funding. Two of the 17, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Mashreq, are UAE banks.
Swift describes the benefit to participating banks precisely: improved client experience and liquidity efficiency without compromising the compliance, credit, risk and control standards embedded in existing payment processing. Meeting that standard on a rail that never closes is an operational question, not only a technical one.
A new rail inside the existing network
Swift connects more than 11,500 institutions across more than 200 countries and territories. Swift’s CEO, Javier Pérez-Tasso, has indicated that the platform will move any form of regulated value, fiat or tokenised, at global scale. As Swift sets it out:
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What moves. Tokenised deposits, which Swift describes as a digital form of commercial bank money.
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How it moves. The shared ledger is an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenised deposits held on each bank's own ledger.
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When it moves. 24/7, in real time.
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Where it is heading. Swift calls the ledger interoperable by design and ready to evolve toward programmable money and agentic commerce.
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The existing rails. More than 100 financial institutions are live or going live with Swift's consumer cross-border payments framework, and 75% of transactions reach the end bank within 10 minutes.
Tokenised deposits and stablecoins are different instruments, and their regulatory treatment should not be assumed to be the same. On 8 April 2026, FinCEN and OFAC announced a proposed rule for permitted payment stablecoin issuers under the US GENIUS Act. The proposal set out requirements for an AML/CFT programme, a sanctions compliance programme including verification of sanctions lists, and technical capabilities to block, freeze and reject specific or impermissible transactions. Its comment period closed on 9 June 2026. This US initiative provides an example of proposed controls for payment stablecoin issuers; it should not be read as automatically applying to UAE banks or tokenised deposits. Institutions need to assess the requirements applicable to their jurisdiction, activities and counterparties.
Every new rail is another route that sanctions screening, fraud detection and reporting must cover. A rail that runs 24/7 needs those controls to run 24/7 as well.
The Forum's agenda addressed both sides. The panel, The UAE Payments Landscape 2026: Instant, Cross-Border & Embedded, with our PDM director Tareq Shaheen, on it covered:
1. Customer expectations of real-time, account-to-account and cross-border money movement.
2. Embedded payments and platform models, and where value is created.
3. Keeping approvals high while reducing fraud and chargebacks.
Tareq Shaheen's keynote, Simplifying Payment Operations: Building a Unified Payment Hub for the Digital Era, addressed the operational side:
1. Modernising legacy infrastructure while supporting multiple payment rails and new messaging formats.
2. Balancing payment speed with compliance and fraud prevention without adding friction or operational cost.
3. Managing operational complexity caused by disconnected payment, compliance and financial crime systems.
Regulation sets the standard each rail must meet. Technology is what lets an institution apply that standard consistently, on every rail, at every hour.
Eastnets PaymentSafe is a centralised financial messaging hub that consolidates payment processing into a single platform. Its capabilities include:
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Multiple rails. End-to-end processing across Swift, Ripple, RTGS, ACH and instant payments, supporting instant payment service levels.
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Standards built in. Tools for ISO 20022, Swift gpi and CBPR+, including an ISO 20022 translator, with no code required.
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Orchestration. End-to-end workflow orchestration, with validation, routing, screening and real-time decisioning.
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Connected controls. Connection to anti-money laundering and fraud systems.
Eastnets' financial crime solutions support screening and fraud controls alongside payment processing. PaymentGuard uses AI and machine learning to help identify potential fraud in real time across payment channels, including Swift networks and open banking, and in instant payment and ISO 20022 environments. SafeWatch Screening supports screening of transactions, customer profiles and messages against multiple watchlists, with real-time flagging and blocking capabilities applied according to configured rules and workflows.
PaymentSafe is a Swift Compatible Application, certified in 2026.
What this means for UAE institutions
Two UAE banks are among Swift's 17 first movers, and the Forum devoted a panel to instant, cross-border and embedded payments in the UAE. For banks and payment firms in the region, five questions follow:
• Which of our payment rails operate 24/7, and do sanctions screening and fraud detection run on the same schedule?
• Is every rail screened and monitored by the same controls, or by separate systems that see only part of the picture?
• How quickly does a sanctions list change reach screening on every rail?
• Can a payment be routed through screening and fraud checks without breaching instant payment service levels?
• Where we deal with stablecoin issuers or tokenised assets, how do the expectations in the FinCEN and OFAC proposal, including blocking, freezing and rejecting transactions, apply to those counterparties?
The Forum's keynote agenda framed the objective as payment speed balanced with compliance and fraud prevention, without adding friction or operational cost. Swift's ledger now runs around the clock. The controls that protect it need to keep the same hours.
To see how Eastnets PaymentSafe connects multiple payment rails to screening and fraud controls in one hub, request a demo.
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