XRP Researcher: My Full Conversation With Tom Alaerts Who Spent Over 27 Years At SWIFT

Tom Alaerts, a former SWIFT standards expert with more than 27 years of experience at the global financial messaging network, has explained why ISO 20022 could play an important role in bringing digital assets into traditional banking infrastructure.

In a lengthy conversation on X with Crypto Researcher SMQKE, Alaerts discussed SWIFT’s future, the relationship between financial messaging standards and blockchain technology, and why institutions may favor digital asset networks that already support established banking standards.

The conversation offers insight into how traditional financial institutions could incorporate blockchain technology without abandoning the systems they currently rely on.

My full conversation with Tom Alaerts, who spent over 27 years at SWIFT working on the standards the global payment system runs on.

Every technical difficulty has been cut out. What is left in this video below is the complete conversation from start to finish, for anyone who… pic.twitter.com/WAFSDof848

— SMQKE (@SMQKEDQG) October 31, 2026

SWIFT Is Expected To Remain Important In Global Finance

One of the major topics was whether blockchain-based payment networks could eventually replace SWIFT. Alaerts disagreed with the idea that the established financial network is approaching irrelevance.

Having joined SWIFT in 1998 and worked primarily in standards development, he explained that its position comes from decades of trust, security, governance, and neutrality. These qualities remain important to banks handling large volumes of international transactions.

He also noted that SWIFT continues to evolve alongside financial technology. Its Global Payments Innovation (GPI) service has improved international payment processing, with approximately three-quarters of payments reportedly reaching their destinations within 20 minutes.

Alaerts believes the financial industry is more likely to adopt a hybrid structure in which traditional payment infrastructure and blockchain networks operate alongside each other. He also discussed SWIFT’s blockchain experiments involving banks, particularly in liquidity management.

ISO 20022 Has an Established Connection With Digital Assets

Another important part of the conversation concerned ISO 20022 and its role in connecting traditional finance with blockchain networks.

Alaerts explained that ISO 20022 is more than a messaging format. He described it as a common business dictionary that allows financial institutions to interpret payment information consistently, regardless of the technology used to transmit it.

This distinction is important because the standard can work across different communication formats, including XML and JSON. It also allows blockchain networks to represent financial information using terminology that banks already understand.

Alaerts revealed that improvements introduced around 2022 and 2023 made it easier to represent digital assets within existing securities messages. These adjustments included support for blockchain addresses, digital token identifiers, and greater numerical precision.

He explained that this approach allows financial institutions to process digital asset transactions without completely rebuilding their existing back-office systems.

ISO-Compatible Networks Could Have an Adoption Advantage

SMQKE also asked whether fintech companies and digital currency networks that comply with ISO standards have better opportunities to integrate with central bank payment systems and SWIFT.

Alaerts agreed. He explained that banks face significant implementation requirements before introducing new technology. These include security assessments, resilience testing, and regulatory compliance.

Fintech companies that already use established ISO terminology can reduce some of these difficulties. Their systems can communicate with existing banking infrastructure more easily, potentially making institutional integration less complicated.

He also discussed the possibility that banks receiving international payments might not need to interact directly with the cryptocurrency infrastructure used during the transaction.

ISO 20022 Extends Beyond Financial Messaging

Alaerts further challenged the perception that SWIFT and ISO 20022 only concern messaging.

He explained that ISO 20022 defines business information and how financial institutions interpret it. Its applications can extend across APIs, blockchain-based systems, asset transfers, and settlement processes.

For SMQKE, this reinforces the importance of interoperability as traditional financial institutions gradually incorporate digital assets into their operations.