Global banks preparing to leverage SWIFT’s new platform for international payments flows
Six leading global banks today announced their endorsement for SWIFT’s new transaction management platform and are preparing to use its expanded capabilities to enable new services, improve efficiency and reduce costs when the platform goes live in November 2022.
Bank of China, Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered confirmed their preparations for the platform as the co-operative detailed an ambitious roadmap it will roll out over the next 18 months. New features – including upfront validation of beneficiary details, central management of exceptions, extension of SWIFT’s high-speed gpi rails to lower-value payments and new rich data services based on the ISO 20022 standard – will serve as the building blocks of the enhanced platform. These are integral components of SWIFT’s strategy to facilitate instant and frictionless end-to-end transactions anywhere in the world.
The platform evolution builds on extensive work by the SWIFT community in the past five years to transform cross-border payments. Through gpi, most cross-border payments today reach end beneficiaries within minutes with full transparency and confirmation when the payment reaches its final destination. This happens across SWIFT’s network connecting more than 11,000 institutions, and 4 billion accounts across 200 countries worldwide.
The new capabilities and enhanced platform SWIFT is building will take these advancements to the next level while ensuring interoperability with new payment types, technologies and services. It will facilitate further innovation and enable exciting new solutions to end customers along with an improved cross-border experience. Preparations for new services are already underway, and international banks see significant potential in the platform capabilities across both payments and securities processing.
Philip Panaino, Global Head, Cash Management, Standard Chartered said, “SWIFT has always been a valued partner in helping our customers fulfill their business objectives, and the enhanced platform launched as part of the new strategy ensures we can continue to adapt to their needs. SWIFT has an established track record in bringing innovative new solutions to market such as gpi, and we are confident the new platform will be even more transformative for the industry.”
Fan Yaosheng, General Manager of Clearing Department, Bank of China said, “SWIFT is already making substantial progress on the new strategy outlined last year and the new features outlined in the roadmap today demonstrate that SWIFT is listening closely to the needs of the industry.”
Paul Camp, CEO of Treasury Services, Bank of New York Mellon said, “We are very excited by the opportunities SWIFT’s transaction management platform will offer. SWIFT has unique assets including both global and domestic reach via connectivity to financial institutions around the world, expansive data and unparalleled resiliency. Unlocking the value of these assets will bring significant value to our global clients, and we are fully committed to working with SWIFT and the wider industry to drive this transformation forward and help revolutionize the way value moves around the world.”
Pierre Fersztand, Global Head of Cash Management, Trade and Payments, BNP Paribas said, “A transformation is underway in the world of payments and securities processing. Our customers require transactions that are fast, secure and cost-effective. SWIFT’s new platform equips the industry with the tools to innovate and meet the demands of the modern era, allowing institutions to leverage enhanced features and more robust data and analytics to accelerate their own digital transformation and deliver a seamless customer experience.”
Manish Kohli, Global Head of Payments and Receivables, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi said, “SWIFT’s platform strategy helps provide the industry with a clear path towards a ubiquitous instant and frictionless cross-border payments experience, which, coupled with SWIFT’s established global reach and scale, represents a credible path to success. We look forward to working with the wider SWIFT community to drive transformational change and to deliver this substantially improved payments experience directly to our clients.”
Ole Matthiessen, Managing Director, Global Head of Cash Management, Deutsche Bank said, “SWIFT’s platform will be a powerful catalyst for innovation for the financial services industry. We can already see how the platform will allow our industry to seamlessly integrate new features that will reduce costs and provide for faster, frictionless payments. It perfectly complements and integrates with Deutsche Bank’s own planned products and services to support future industry demand.”
