Swift testing real-time cross border payments in Europe
(21 May 2019 – Europe) Banks from France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia and Spain have joined with Swift to test real-time gpi cross-border payments through the Eurosystem’s Target Instant Payment Settlement (Tips).
Lenders including Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Natixis, Santander, Sberbank and UniCredit are participating in the pilot.
While payment messages cross the Swift network in real-time, the settlement and receipt of funds in the beneficiary account can lag by several days when entering national domestic clearing system.
With the advent of real-time, 24/7 payment systems and longer ‘credit windows’ enabled by the continuous availability of central bank money settlement, such as that offered by the Tips network, the barriers created by different domestic clearing systems can be removed, ensuring that payments can be credited in seconds.
Alain Raes, chief executive EMEA and Asia Pacific at Swift, says: “By linking Swift gpi and Tips, our customers will be able to leverage their existing investments to deliver a superior service to their clients. The support we have from major European banks demonstrates their commitment to partnering with Swift to deliver a fast, secure and seamless cross-border real-time payment service that scales globally.
A similar arrangement was successfully trialed by Swift in 2018 with Australia’s domestic instant payment system, the New Payments Platform (NPP), and a group of banks from Australia, China, Singapore and Thailand.
Subscribe