Former SWIFT Employee Drops Hint at Possible XRP Integration with SWIFT Years Ago

The XRP community is building excitement about the potential integration of XRP with the financial behemoth SWIFT using a dated statement from a former employee of the payment processor.

In a recent tweet, Edward Farina, Head of Social Adoption at XRP Healthcare (XRPH), unearthed an interview where Graham Bright, who worked with SWIFT for over 20 years as Regional Manager, commented about XRP’s potential role in SWIFT’s payment processing.

While the interview is at least three years old, it recently surfaced within the XRP community, generating considerable attention.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM ?

Former SWIFT ? employee for over 20 years educates a #BTC maxi about $XRP:

“Ripple $XRP to move across the SWIFT ? network as a CURRENCY.” ‼️ ‼️ ‼️ pic.twitter.com/NsGtkLrsqS

— EDO FARINA ? XRP (@edward_farina) October 4, 2023

XRP’s Place in SWIFT Network

In the interview, Layah Heilpern asked Bright about the potential of cryptocurrencies replacing SWIFT. Bright, who had dedicated two decades of his career to SWIFT, emphasized the role that SWIFT plays as the primary messaging system in the financial industry. 

He highlighted that while SWIFT handles financial services, it does not excel in real-time transactions and instant fund visibility. Bright contrasted SWIFT’s traditional store-and-forward system to the emerging crypto networks. 

Specifically, he noted that crypto networks prioritize instant, real-time movement of funds and provide transparent visibility of transactions. However, Bright made it clear that he does not foresee cryptocurrencies, particularly Ripple’s network using XRP, entirely replacing SWIFT.

Instead, he envisioned cryptocurrencies like XRP as complementary networks catering to institutions requiring real-time capabilities. Also, Bright mentioned SWIFT was evolving to incorporate real-time functionalities to ensure it remains relevant in a changing financial landscape.

Meanwhile, the veteran ex-SWIFT employee hinted at the possibility of XRP being integrated into the SWIFT Network. He believes Ripple’s network has a place in SWIFT’s foreign exchange transactions.

In his words:

“We may also see Ripple XRP moving across the Swift Network as a currency when we’re perhaps using something like FX.”

It is worth mentioning that the SWIFT-Ripple partnership, which the XRP community had anticipated following Brights’s comment, never materialized. In contrast, SWIFT partnered with Chainlink to potentially use the LINK token for crypto payment processing.