SWIFT is trying to deliver a new standard for any bank with cross-border payments

SWIFT announces that 73 banks worldwide have now joined its global payments innovation initiative, designed to improve the cross-border payments experience. As a part of the initiative, banks will enhance their approach to cross border payments and follow a set of strict business rules designed by SWIFT in collaboration with participating banks.

“It is great to see so many banks from all corners of the globe participating in SWIFT’s global payments innovation initiative,” says Wim Raymaekers, Global Head of Banking Market and project lead for this initiative at SWIFT. “Together, they do nearly 75% of all cross-border payments on the SWIFT network. We welcome additional banks to join this open initiative“

„Banks in the initiative will be able to give their corporate clients a dramatically improved payment experience, with same day use of funds, transparency of fees, end-to-end tracking, and transfer of rich payment information.”, according to the press release.

„To enable the end-to-end tracking, SWIFT is developing a database ‘in the cloud’ hosted at SWIFT, to give end-to-end visibility on the status of a payment transaction, from the moment it is sent until it is confirmed – similar to tracking services provided by international shipping companies.”, SWIFT says.

Raymaekers adds: “This new payments tracker is a great example of collaborative innovation. For the first time, banks will be able to give their customers precise information about their payments, in real-time, including confirmation of credit to beneficiary’s account.”

The first phase of the initiative is well underway with a pilot focused on business-to-business payments. Early results from the pilot will be presented at Sibos, SWIFT’s annual financial services event, in September 2016, with the go-live planned for early 2017.

In addition to this first phase, over 40 banks participated in a series of workshops held in Frankfurt, Singapore, London and New York in April and May, and defined a new vision for correspondent banking dubbed “the digital transformation of cross-border payments”. A supporting client-centric and pragmatic roadmap was established to deliver an additional set of data-enhanced payments services, creating more value for customers as well as further reducing operating costs for banks.

“SWIFT’s global payment innovation initiative is a real game-changer”, says Christian Sarafidis, Chief Marketing Officer, SWIFT. “The large number of banks, the new payments tracker, a pilot showing results, and a roadmap to deliver even more value – this initiative is the “new standard” for any bank with cross-border payments.”

Here is what some of the new participating banks have to say about the initiative:

“At CaixaBank we are pleased to join up with SWIFT in the global payments innovation initiative. Payments and correspondent banking are undergoing changes at a very fast pace and we do not want to miss this opportunity to contribute to re-shaping them. At CaixaBank we strongly believe this initiative will mark a milestone in the future of the payments landscape.“ Beatriz Kissler, General Manager GDS Cusa (CaixaBank Group).

“Rabobank is always looking for improving its services to customers. The global payments innovation initiative offers customers benefits in terms of speed, predictability and transparency of cross border payments. Participation in this initiative is a logical step for Rabobank.” Marco Bosma, Head Financial Logistics, Rabobank

Sandeep Chouhan, Head of Operations and Technology at Mashreq said, “We are proud to be at the forefront of payment initiatives which reflects the Bank’s continuous efforts to be at the forefront of innovation. This is the perfect time to embrace an initiative such as this one, allowing us to effect meaningful change in the way payments are made, ultimately resulting in a significantly enhanced customer experience. We are thrilled to be the first mover in the Region to be a part of the SWIFT global payments innovation initiative, which we believe will deliver tangible benefits of convenience and security to customers, while setting a new standard in payment transparency and customer centricity.”

Source: www.swift.com