BRIDGE // Settlement
Real-time gross
settlement.
Immediate, irrevocable settlement finality for high-value domestic and cross-border payments. No batch windows. No deferred netting. Every payment settles individually on a supervised distributed ledger.
Legacy settlement is broken
The infrastructure that moves trillions daily was designed for batch processing and end-of-day netting. It cannot keep up.
How Bridge RTGS works
Three steps. Sub-second finality. Full supervisory transparency.
Initiate
Bank submits a payment through the Bridge API or Orchestra dashboard. Pre-settlement validation confirms sufficient reserves before execution begins.
Settle
The payment is processed as a discrete atomic operation on the distributed ledger. Multi-party consensus between sending bank, receiving bank, and supervisory node guarantees finality.
Confirm
Settlement is cryptographically proven and irrevocable. Both parties receive real-time confirmation. The supervisory node has full visibility without disrupting the operation.
Comparison
RTGS-on-DLT vs batch settlement
The same transfer instruction, the same regulator — but the settlement model decides what intraday risk the system carries and how long the money is in flight.
| Property | Batch / netting (legacy) | RTGS on DLT (Bridge) |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement timing | End-of-day (or hourly) batch windows; cut-offs apply. | Per-payment, immediate. No batch window, no cut-off. |
| Finality | Achieved at end-of-cycle netting; intraday positions are provisional. | Cryptographic, atomic, sub-3-second. Confirmed on every participant ledger. |
| Liquidity buffer | Banks pre-fund worst-case net positions for the cycle. | Per-payment funding only — frees pre-funded reserves for productive use. |
| Counterparty risk window | Hours to a full business day until netting clears. | Effectively zero — atomic settlement removes principal-risk exposure. |
| Reconciliation | Each participant maintains a private ledger; daily reconciliation across institutions. | Shared distributed ledger; all participants hold a cryptographically-verified copy of the same state. |
| Supervisory visibility | End-of-day reports + on-request queries; partial visibility into intraday positions. | Real-time supervisory node with full transaction-level transparency, no operator delay. |
| Operating window | Business hours; closed on weekends, holidays, and outside the operator's region. | 24/7/365 — settlement runs continuously across time zones and holidays. |
| Failure handling | Failed payments resubmitted in the next batch — adds latency and operational queues. | Failed payment is rejected before reserve is debited; immediate retry with no batch dependency. |
| Cross-asset (DvP) | Cash and securities settle on separate cycles; principal risk between legs. | Atomic delivery-versus-payment — cash and asset legs settle in a single transaction. |
| Standards | MT messaging in legacy systems; ISO 20022 migration ongoing. | ISO 20022 native; PFMI-aligned settlement semantics; Corda 5 distributed ledger. |
Bridge RTGS does not replace the central bank's role in supervising the settlement system — the supervisory node retains reserve management, emergency controls, and reversibility on a defined set of operator-controlled flows. The DLT layer changes the ledger-keeping model, not the monetary-authority model.
Integration
Deploy RTGS without
replacing your core.
Bridge RTGS operates alongside existing core banking systems. Connect via API, configure your settlement corridors, and start settling in real time — without a rip-and-replace migration.
BRIDGE RTGS // Settlement Flow
Built for regulated institutions
Central Banks
Modernize RTGS with full supervisory control. Real-time reserve management, continuous settlement availability, and immutable audit trails. No loss of monetary authority.
Commercial Banks
Upgrade payment rails without system replacement. Deploy alongside core banking, validate incrementally, and offer instant settlement to institutional clients.
Capital Markets
DvP settlement with cryptographic finality for securities, derivatives, and tokenized assets. Eliminate counterparty risk with atomic execution.
FAQ
RTGS on DLT — questions from central banks and commercial banks
How the platform works, how it integrates, and how it compares to legacy RTGS.
Settlement should take seconds, not days.
Talk to our solutions team about deploying Bridge RTGS for your institution.