More than 12,000 delegates gathered in Frankfurt for Sibos 2025 — the first time the conference has been held in Germany’s financial capital. Over 500 expert speakers and 250 sessions are covering the “next frontiers of global finance”, from stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to tokenisation, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and the G20 roadmap for cross-border payments. The opening sequence spoke of a world “where distance no longer limits possibility… where minds meet, ideas spark and connections grow” and at its core “global finance is not just about money, it’s about trust”. This theme of trust and connectivity framed all four speakers’ messages. Strengthening the cooperative’s foundations Swift chair Graeme Munro welcomed delegates by calling Frankfurt “a major financial hub that holds the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank and one of the world’s largest stock exchanges” and described ringing the opening bell at Deutsche Börse earlier that morning. For him, the location was “actually a homecoming” recalling his time living in the city in the 1990s. He used this symbolism to underline a deeper point about stability and evolution. Swift’s refreshed strategy “builds on the fundamentals we have developed over the past five decades while embracing innovation to future-proof the cooperative”. Munro stressed that “our first priority, as always, is operational excellence” because of Swift’s critical role in the global financial ecosystem. He detailed how Swift is “investing in AI and other advanced tools to prevent and detect risks and to recover even faster if or when any issues arise” and “fortifying Swift security against ever-increasing cyber threats”. This emphasis on resilience echoed the plenary’s opening theme of trust. Munro linked these operational priorities to industry milestones. He highlighted the “community-led migration to ISO 20022” as “fundamental to an improved cross-border payments experience” and reminded the audience of the “important deadline coming up in November with the official end of the migration period” urging members to “keep up the strong momentum”. He also elevated governance to the same level as technology. Over the past two years Swift has “enhanced our corporate governance structure” in parallel with an overseers’ review, designing “a best-in-class model that both reinforces Swift’s fiduciary governance as a critical service provider and strengthens the voice of shareholders and customers in Swift’s strategy and decisions”. By placing governance and operational excellence alongside innovation, Munro positioned Swift as a cooperative able to deliver “a better financial world for the next 50 years and beyond” while maintaining “principles of global inclusivity” and “supporting international transactions”. Layered innovation for the next frontiers CEO of Swift, Javier Pérez-Tasso opened with humour, calling Sibos “the World Cup of finance” and noting that “future frontiers are not that far away… they are here right now” in shifts in global trade, economic policies, AI, quantum and decentralised finance. He highlighted that more than 12,000 participants from across the world were present, underlining Sibos’ diversity and connectivity. He set out Swift’s “two parallel tracks” strategy — rejuvenating the classics while inventing for the future. Using an anecdote about Adidas shoes, he explained that “staying relevant over many generations requires doing both—evolving the classics while inventing and carrying new items”. On rejuvenation he gave hard metrics: Swift connects “4 billion accounts across over 200 countries, 40,000 corridors, moving the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) every two or three days” and already “75% of payments on the Swift network now reach the end-beneficiary bank within minutes”. A new retail payments scheme launched the previous week with major banks enables “full-value transfers, no lifting fees and instant settlement at global scale”. On innovation, he described how Swift had “shown that Swift can be used to transfer tokenised value across public and private blockchains and interlink central bank digital currencies globally”. He then made the plenary’s headline announcement: “We will add a blockchain-based ledger to our technology infrastructure to allow for trusted movement of tokenised value across the digital ecosystems” working with “more than 30 banks globally” and building “an initial prototype with Consensys”. Swift will focus on the infrastructure layer, leaving “the money layer” to commercial and central banks. By combining the shared ledger with existing Swift messaging and application programming interfaces (APIs), Pérez-Tasso said the cooperative will create “an even more powerful construct… embedding risk control and compliance requirements from the outset” and enabling “24/7, real-time cross-border payments with the same trust, security, resilience and scalability” for which Swift is known. He framed layered innovation as the way to provide choice, reduce fragmentation and build sovereignty in digital finance. Digital euro as sovereignty and innovation President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, began with levity about not competing with Jürgen Klopp in response to Pérez-Tasso’s football analogy, but quickly moved to substance: “Payment and settlement… have become more fascinating but also more political than ever” due to “rapid development of new technologies… some of them disruptive”. He saw “a great opportunity” in “a truly smart economy” where “the settlement of contracts is largely automated, supported by digital money, distributed ledger technology and smart contracts” saving “time, costs and risks as well as release huge potential for growth” but warned “we cannot support innovation for innovation’s sake alone”. Nagel stressed the anchor role of central bank money: large-value payments “must be settled in central bank money” possibly using wholesale CBDC; new instruments “cannot create distorted incentives” leading to bank runs or volatility; and “all financial actors must be subject to proper regulation” with a “level playing field” under anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorist-financing and Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI) rules. He then elevated the digital euro to equal prominence. Calling it “the most important project of the Eurosystem”, he linked it to Europe’s experience of reducing dependence on Russian gas: “It is about becoming more resilient” in payments just as Germany became more resilient in energy. He said he hoped that in his remaining four years as Bundesbank president he would hear inflight announcements allowing payment “also with the digital euro” — signalling a five-year horizon for live use. Nagel argued that Europe is “still too fragmented when it comes to payment systems… we have to speed up all the processes… and overcome domestic obstacles so Europe can do much better”. He advocated faster legal frameworks, capital-market union and indigenous infrastructure such as a European cloud to support the digital euro and interoperable payment systems. Thus, alongside his warnings about monetary policy and financial stability, Nagel framed the digital euro and interoperable infrastructures as a proactive strategy for sovereignty and technological renewal. Banks as drivers of Europe’s renewal Christian Sewing, chief executive of Deutsche Bank and president of the Association of German Banks, followed with a commercial-banking perspective. He thanked Swift for “continuing to lead the dialogue in our industry with both vision and commitment” and called its blockchain announcement “compelling proof” of innovation. Reflecting on change since he last spoke at Sibos in 2019, he said the world had seen “unprecedented volatility driven by global crises and conflicts—the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war of aggression shattered certainties that held for decades” while “technological development has accelerated dramatically, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence”. Sewing argued that banks “are no longer just lenders of financial projects” but “strategic partners helping reshape entire economies… infrastructure providers, risk managers, technology investors and sustainability enablers” that “connect markets, bridge regulatory systems and enable the flow of ideas, goods and capital across borders”. He warned that “years of sluggish growth have left Europe… behind due to structural inertia” and “excessive bureaucracy continues to stifle innovation” with “chronic under-investment in many future-critical areas, especially in technology”. Citing former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi’s report published in 2024, he said “EUR 800 billion” (about $872 billion) would be needed between 2025 and 2031 and “annual investments of EUR 1.2 billion” (about $1.3 billion) have also been cited — but “this kind of amount cannot and should not be financed by the state alone”. Banks must “either finance these investments directly, or build the bridges across capital markets between investors and the companies seeking the necessary capital” especially in “future-oriented sectors like AI and green tech”. Sewing portrayed banks as essential to “actively shape the economic renewal of Europe” if they make the right decisions now. He closed on a dual message of progress and vigilance. European banks are now “far more resilient, secure and profitable than we have been in decades” but “we must not rest for a second” as they face four key challenges: geopolitics reshaping value chains, diverging regulation and fragmentation, intensifying competition from non-banks at the client interface, and accelerating technology (especially AI) eroding customer loyalty and making seamless client experience critical. Trust, sovereignty and innovation as shared imperatives The Sibos Frankfurt 2025 opening plenary wove a common narrative of trust, sovereignty and layered innovation. Swift pledged to combine rejuvenation with infrastructure-level innovation through a blockchain-based shared ledger integrated with its messaging and compliance frameworks. The Bundesbank’s Joachim Nagel balanced warnings about monetary stability with a call to accelerate the digital euro and interoperable infrastructures as instruments of European sovereignty and technological renewal. Deutsche Bank’s Christian Sewing urged Europe’s banks to finance the investments needed to match liberal values with technological leadership and sustainability. Together, these messages set the tone for a week in which global finance’s “next frontiers” will be debated not only as technical upgrades but as strategic choices about resilience, inclusion and Europe’s role in the future financial order.
