Avalon Ingram: Banks Are Done Experimenting With Tokenization

Avalon Ingram says 17 banks are already transacting live on Swift’s ledger, up from an initial plan to test with about six, but she argues that critical mass should be judged by customer value, recurring volume, and demand—not participant count alone. The host says banks are starting to take notice, while Ingram questions whether banks with only one or two correspondent relationships need to build private ledgers.

Ingram describes Swift’s blockchain as an upgrade because existing messages cannot move digital assets, but the ledger records interbank transfer obligations rather than exchanging tokens. Since banks still settle through correspondent accounts or RTGS, she identifies round-the-clock access to settlement venues as a bottleneck to 24/7 interbank settlement.

Ingram says tokenized deposits are liabilities of individual banks and generally are not interchangeable, while stablecoins can be portable if recipients accept them; the choice depends on the use case, including liquidity fragmentation, speed, and cost. Stablecoin treatment also varies by jurisdiction, and whether one can be sent to a particular jurisdiction may remain uncertain.