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SWIFT nearing instant cross border payments functionality

SWIFT nearing instant cross border payments functionality

(4 September 2018 – Singapore) The member-owned banking cooperative SWIFT plans to make cross border payments processes near-instant by recently launching a trial of instant cross-border gpi (global payments innovation) service in the Asia Pacific.

SWIFT’s gpi has already enabled banks to credit payments to international beneficiaries in minutes or even seconds. The service will allow near-instant availability of funds, including after standard business hours, compared to the current practice with which payments are settled the following day if they are sent at day-end. The trial results will be presented at SWIFT's annual SIBOS event from 22 to 25 October in Sydney. Trial participants include ANZ, CBA and NAB alongside Bangkok Bank, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, DBS, ICBC, KASIKORNBANK, Siam Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and United Overseas Bank. While the initial trial will be focused on payments going into Australia, other real-time systems in the region will be added in due course.

In March this year, SWIFT announced the extension of its gpi Tracker to cover all payment instructions sent across the network. As a result, banks can track all their SWIFT payment at all times. Customers of banks in theory can also track SWIFT payment instructions anytime but CFOs and treasurers have to ask their banks for access to the tracker because it's at the banks' discretion to provide the service. SWIFT said that more than 30 percent of all SWIFT customer payments are now sent on gpi and more than 200 banks have already signed up to the service. The cooperative expects gpi to become the standard for cross-border payments on its networks with 10,000 bank members by end-2020, replacing the current messaging service. Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at the opening of an ambassadors’ conference in Berlin that the work to build a European payment system independent of the “dominant” SWIFT has already begun.

According to Michael Moon, SWIFT's Asia Pacific Head of Payments Markets, the trial that uses Australia's New Payments Platform (NPP) launched in February 2018 involves banks from China, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia, following workshops held earlier this year in these markets. While payments will get faster, the ability to track payment is important as well, Moon highlighted. “SWIFT targets to make unique identifiers available for payment tracking by November this year while in 2020 SWIFT member banks will need to send confirmations when they complete processing a payment.”

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