IBM has rolled out two new beta capabilities for its Digital Asset Haven platform, aimed at helping banks, governments and other regulated organisations offer digital asset services without loosening their grip on security. The first connects the platform to permissioned blockchain networks, including Swift’s shared ledger, while the second lets clients run Digital Asset Haven entirely inside their own data centres.
IBM tied the launch to a wider modernisation drive across the industry, citing J.P. Morgan Payments research showing that 93% of financial institutions are upgrading their payments infrastructure as they look for quicker ways to move money across borders and handle a growing range of digital assets.
The Swift integration is built around a new feature, the IBM Digital Asset Haven ISO 20022 Messaging Adapter. It lets institutions instruct tokenised deposit transactions on Swift’s ledger using the ISO 20022 message formats they already rely on for payments, instead of building separate processes designed around blockchain. IBM said participating clients will be able to move digital assets at any hour, on any day of the week, ahead of final settlement through existing systems, while continuing to apply Swift standards and their own compliance checks.
Swift unveiled the ledger at Sibos 2025 and designed it with more than 40 financial institutions. According to IBM, it moved from concept to activation within nine months and is being used by 17 institutions piloting tokenised deposit transactions. Institutions already taking part have successfully tested tokenised deposits on the ledger using Digital Asset Haven.
Digital Asset Haven: What It Means
The second release takes Digital Asset Haven, launched as a cloud and hybrid service in October 2025, onto clients’ own premises. Running on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE hardware with no reliance on public cloud, it allows organisations to hold and manage assets such as stablecoins and tokenised deposits within their own systems. Encryption keys stay inside the client’s environment, protected by dedicated security hardware and generated through documented procedures that clients can present to regulators. The on premises version shares the same design as the cloud versions, so clients can switch between setups without rewriting their applications.
Tom McPherson, General Manager, IBM Z and LinuxONE, said banks are entering a period where tokenised and conventional assets will have to operate together, and need infrastructure that adds new capabilities without compromising on security, resilience or compliance.
“The financial services industry is entering a new era where tokenized and traditional assets will need to move side by side,” McPherson said. “As institutions modernize payments and prepare for a future of always-on transactions, they need infrastructure that combines innovation with the security, resiliency, and regulatory compliance requirements of regulated banking. By connecting to Swift’s shared ledger and extending IBM Digital Asset Haven to on-premises environments, IBM is helping clients participate in emerging digital asset networks while prioritizing control of their most critical financial operations.”
For banks, the appeal is that they may be able to try out tokenised money without learning an entirely new way of working, since the payment messages and compliance processes stay familiar. That could lower the barrier for institutions that have been interested in digital assets but wary of the cost and risk of getting started. For Swift, a technology provider of IBM’s size connecting to its ledger could help bring more banks onto a network that becomes more useful with every institution that joins.
Digital Trade Outlook: What stands out is the on premises option. Many regulated banks are uneasy about keeping encryption keys and critical systems in the public cloud, and this lets them hold everything in house. Combined with access to Swift’s ledger through the same ISO 20022 messages they already use, it gives banks running IBM mainframes an easier way to test tokenised deposits, which could help the technology move beyond pilots.
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