Fnality’s Blockchain Breakthrough: $136M to Replace SWIFT with Instant, Risk-Free Payments

Fnality, a London-based fintech firm specializing in blockchain-based wholesale payment systems, has secured $136 million in a Series C funding round led by WisdomTree, with participation from Bank of America, Citi, KBC Group, Temasek, and Tradeweb. Existing investors, including Banco Santander, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, and ING, also contributed to the round. The capital will accelerate the expansion of Fnality’s regulated digital payment infrastructure, with plans to integrate U.S. dollar and euro markets pending regulatory approvals from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank.

Fnality’s platform leverages distributed ledger technology (DLT) to enable instant, atomic settlements using digital versions of central bank money. This approach eliminates credit and settlement risks by replacing traditional intermediaries with blockchain-based transactions, offering a solution to the inefficiencies of legacy systems like SWIFT, which often delay cross-border payments for days. The company’s Sterling Fnality Payment System (£FnPS), the world’s first regulated DLT-based wholesale platform, was developed in collaboration with Banco Santander, Lloyds Banking Group, and UBS.

The firm’s leadership includes Michelle Neal, CEO since March 2025, who previously held senior roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and BNY Mellon. Rhomaios Ram, the founder, serves as a strategic advisor, focusing on product development and regulatory strategy. Neal emphasized Fnality’s role in bridging traditional and decentralized finance, stating that its 24/7 payment rails and programmable features, such as “earmarking,” enable real-time, conditional settlements tied to cryptographic proofs of events like asset delivery.

Fnality’s “earmarking” innovation allows institutions to reserve funds for specific purposes, ensuring they are only used as intended. This programmability adds a layer of conditional logic to central bank digital money, enabling scalable business models and automated payment flows. The feature differentiates Fnality from competitors like JPMorgan’s Kinexys and Partior, which rely on commercial bank money, and from RippleNet or Stellar, which use intermediary tokens. By operating on central bank-supervised rails, Fnality avoids credit risk entirely.

The funding round underscores growing institutional confidence in blockchain solutions for wholesale finance. Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree, highlighted Fnality’s infrastructure as “a critical foundation for the future of financial services,” noting its alignment with the shift toward tokenized assets and decentralized finance (DeFi). With $120 billion in cross-border payments and tokenized securities growth as target markets, Fnality aims to address a sector plagued by liquidity constraints and operational complexity.

The company’s expansion strategy includes securing regulatory approvals for U.S. and euro markets, which would position it to compete directly with legacy systems. Analysts note that Fnality’s focus on central bank money and atomic settlements addresses a key bottleneck in institutional finance, where delays tie up capital and complicate liquidity management. By eliminating intermediaries and enabling real-time transactions, Fnality’s model could redefine cross-border payment efficiency.

Source: [1] Fnality raises $136m to disrupt wholesale payments blockchain (https://techfundingnews.com/fnality-raises-136m-to-disrupt-wholesale-payments-blockchain/)