A new regulated blockchain network called Regulated Layer One (RL1) began operations on July 28 as a Luxembourg-based European Cooperative Society owned by ten major financial institutions. The founding members include ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis CIB, SC Ventures, and Seturion.
RL1 inherits the underlying distributed-ledger technology from SWIAT, which operated the production network for three years prior to the launch. During that time, SWIAT completed more than 50 transactions with a combined value exceeding €700 million. RL1 now owns the network, while SWIAT continues as the software supplier and technical operator.
Each founding member holds equal governance rights, with oversight provided by a general assembly, supervisory board, and operational management board. The network is private and permissioned but remains open to additional regulated financial-market participants. NatWest is expected to join soon, and KfW and L-Bank are supporting further expansion without yet being full cooperative members. Former SWIAT managing director Henning Vollbehr leads the cooperative.
The platform aims to support tokenized bonds, funds, real-world assets, collateral, repo transactions, securities lending, and digital money. It also lists stablecoins and commercial or central-bank money among potential settlement tools, though these use cases are still proposed rather than fully live.
A practical test is anticipated via KfW’s third blockchain bond—a €100 million security issued in June. This autumn, KfW plans to migrate the registrar and ledger from Cashlink and Polygon to DekaBank and SWIAT/RL1. Additionally, the European Central Bank plans to launch its Pontes infrastructure in Q3 2026, connecting DLT platforms with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services for central-bank money settlement. RL1 aims to become “the connecting infrastructure for Europe’s digital financial market,” but no deadlines have been set for broader membership or commercial-scale targets.
