SWIFT announced today that its global payments innovation (gpi) service is growing at a rapid rate, surpassing two million payments in September this year.

 

SWIFT gpi has rapidly become the new standard in cross-border payments, as more than 120 leading transaction banks, representing over 75% of all SWIFT payments, are signed up to the service, with many additional banks joining within the last few months. Twenty-four banks are live and actively using SWIFT gpi, exchanging several thousands of messages daily across 100 country corridors. Over forty banks are expected to be live with gpi by the end of 2017.

 

“The speed by which SWIFT gpi has become the new standard in cross-border payments is impressive,” says Christian Sarafidis, Chief Marketing Officer, SWIFT. “This is a direct result of the real value co-creation and collaborative innovation gpi can bring to banks and their corporate customers. Gpi payments are credited within 24 hours from initiation and most within a few hours and even minutes. Corporates can track their payments in real-time and get confirmation of that credit directly from their banks.”

 

SWIFT gpi comes with an innovative payments Tracker, a cloud-based application accessible via APIs. Banks are using these APIs to embed the gpi Tracker information into their payments flow applications and front-end platforms, allowing their customers to track gpi payments in real-time. 

 

“The Tracker is the cornerstone of SWIFT gpi,” says Wim Raymaekers, Head of Banking Markets and SWIFT gpi at SWIFT. “The most common pain points from corporates today are the lack of visibility on their payments' status and not knowing when the beneficiary was credited. In fact, 64% of corporate treasurers recently surveyed[i] are asking for real-time payments tracking. SWIFT gpi allows banks to address these needs and provide distinctive value to their customers.”

 

SWIFT is also working on the next phase of gpi, which will include additional digital services to further transform the cross-border payment experience, such as stop and recall a payment, transfer of rich payment data and a payment assistant to provide more intelligence at payment origination.

 

In parallel, SWIFT is exploring the potential use of blockchain technology in the cross-border payments process. Over 30 gpi banks have been running a Proof of Concept (Poc) to test whether a SWIFT-developed application using distributed ledger technology (DLT) can be used to reconcile Nostro accounts in real-time and help to optimise global liquidity. Preliminary results will be shared at Sibos in Toronto whilst the PoC is set to finish later in November 2017.

 

In addition, as part of its continuous innovation process, SWIFT and its banks are working with FinTech companies to develop additional overlay services that leverage the gpi platform using its APIs and banks can build on to provide even more value to their customers. Demos of early proof of value concepts will be shown at Sibos.

 

Recent joiners to SWIFT gpi include, Al Baraka Bank, Asociación Popular de Ahorros y Préstamos, Axis Bank, Banco de Chile, Banco de Crédito del Perú, Banco de Galicia, Banco de Reservas de la República Dominicana, Banco del Pacifico, Banco Inbursa, Banco Sabadell, Bangkok Bank, Bank al Etihad, Bank of Georgia, Bank of Jiangsu, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Ningbo, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Bank of Zhengzhou, Bidvest Bank, Budapest Bank, CaixaBank, Cajamar Caja Rural, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Central Africa Building Society, China Zheshang Bank, Chong Hing Bank, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, CTBC Bank, E.SUN Commercial Bank, Ecobank, GCB Bank, HELABA Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen, ICICI Bank, Ipagoo, Kapital Bank Azerbaijan, Kasikorn Bank, National Commercial Bank, Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci, Promsvyazbank PJSC, Scotiabank, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi, UBS Group, United Overseas Bank, Vietcombank, VTB Bank and Yinzhou Bank.