(7 April 2016 – Global) Global payments messaging provider, SWIFT has bolstered its business-to-business pilot program with more banks joining the initiative.
In a statement released on Tuesday, SWIFT said 21 more banks, including Citi, Bank of China and JPMorgan Chase, have signed on, increasing the total number of financial institutions involved to 51.
SWIFT has said the program seeks to improve the transparency and speed of global payments with the program.
“The tight-knit group of leading banks will help to spearhead the testing through the pilot and beyond,” said SWIFT Project Lead and Global Head of the Banking Market Wim Raymaekers in a statement.
“Their commitment is a testament to the initiative and our joint ambition to significantly improve the cross-border payments experience for corporate customers,” he said.
“As we progress, we aim to incorporate additional innovations and deploy new technologies to this global payments innovation initiative and define additional service-level agreements that will cater for other client groups, further reducing the costs and frictions arising from compliance, liquidity and processing efficiency considerations involved in cross-border payments.”