Key Takeaways
- • Ten European financial institutions have launched Regulated Layer One (RL1), a pan-European distributed ledger technology (DLT) network organized as a European Cooperative Society (SCE) and based in Luxembourg, designed for digital assets and payments infrastructure.
- • RL1 is built on the production-proven SWIAT DLT network, which has successfully processed over 40 transactions totaling more than €600 million in volume over more than two years of operation, demonstrating technical maturity and regulatory compliance.
- • The cooperative structure ensures joint ownership, operation, and governance by European financial institutions, with the framework remaining open for additional institutions to join, establishing a neutral, compliance-optimized utility for the regulated financial sector.
- • Participating founding institutions include DekaBank, LBBW, Standard Chartered, ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank, and Raiffeisen Bank International, representing major banking entities across the European financial system.
- • RL1 is positioned as a foundational infrastructure layer enabling regulated market participants to deploy and scale distributed ledger use cases while maintaining European sovereignty and credible neutrality.
Summary
Ten leading European financial institutions have established Regulated Layer One (RL1), a cooperative-owned distributed ledger network designed to serve as critical infrastructure for digital assets and payments across the European financial system. The initiative, announced in collaboration with SWIAT GmbH, a German fintech company specializing in blockchain software and tokenization platforms, represents a collective effort to create a shared, neutral, and compliance-optimized DLT network under open governance structures.
RL1 is organized as a European Cooperative Society (SCE) based in Luxembourg, with founding members including major European banks such as DekaBank, LBBW, ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank, and Raiffeisen Bank International. The cooperative structure grants joint ownership and operational control to participating financial institutions, distinguishing it from centralized blockchain platforms and ensuring credible neutrality in governance. The cooperative framework remains explicitly open to additional institutions seeking to join, positioning RL1 as an expandable utility rather than a closed-membership consortium.
The technical foundation for RL1 rests on SWIAT's existing production-proven DLT network, which has demonstrated operational stability and regulatory compliance over more than two years. This SWIAT network has successfully completed over 40 transactions with a combined volume exceeding €600 million, providing evidence of technical maturity and market readiness. The transition involves moving the SWIAT DLT network and its regulatory-compliance-optimized contractual framework from SWIAT into the new cooperative structure, ensuring continuity of proven infrastructure while shifting control to member institutions.
RL1 is designed as a foundational pillar enabling regulated market participants to deploy and scale distributed ledger use cases across capital markets, payments, and digital asset infrastructure. The platform emphasizes European sovereignty, regulatory credibility, and interoperability, positioning itself as the infrastructure layer for digital finance within the European financial sector. By establishing a neutral, collectively owned network under regulatory-optimized governance, RL1 aims to reduce fragmentation and create a common distributed ledger standard for European financial institutions.
RL1 is organized as a European Cooperative Society (SCE) based in Luxembourg, with founding members including major European banks such as DekaBank, LBBW, ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank, and Raiffeisen Bank International. The cooperative structure grants joint ownership and operational control to participating financial institutions, distinguishing it from centralized blockchain platforms and ensuring credible neutrality in governance. The cooperative framework remains explicitly open to additional institutions seeking to join, positioning RL1 as an expandable utility rather than a closed-membership consortium.
The technical foundation for RL1 rests on SWIAT's existing production-proven DLT network, which has demonstrated operational stability and regulatory compliance over more than two years. This SWIAT network has successfully completed over 40 transactions with a combined volume exceeding €600 million, providing evidence of technical maturity and market readiness. The transition involves moving the SWIAT DLT network and its regulatory-compliance-optimized contractual framework from SWIAT into the new cooperative structure, ensuring continuity of proven infrastructure while shifting control to member institutions.
RL1 is designed as a foundational pillar enabling regulated market participants to deploy and scale distributed ledger use cases across capital markets, payments, and digital asset infrastructure. The platform emphasizes European sovereignty, regulatory credibility, and interoperability, positioning itself as the infrastructure layer for digital finance within the European financial sector. By establishing a neutral, collectively owned network under regulatory-optimized governance, RL1 aims to reduce fragmentation and create a common distributed ledger standard for European financial institutions.
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