Swift to launch global payment innovation project
Raymaekers: Swift will consider using blockchain and other innovations
Swift is planning to launch a global payment innovation initiative, which it says will dramatically improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments. The platform is due to launch early next year.
Initially, the initiative will focus on business to business payments. The key features include same day use of funds, transparency on fees, end to end payments tracking and more detailed payment information. It will run on service level agreements between the participating banks, using Swift’s global platform. Participation will be open to any supervised financial institution that is a member of Swift.
“This initiative is an important first step in driving cross-border payments innovation,” said Wim Raymaekers, head of banking markets at Swift. “As part of the initiative we will continue to develop new and enhanced services, utilising Swift’s Innotribe initiative to further engage the fintech community and explore the application of innovations such as real time payment status tracking, the use of peer-to-peer messaging and blockchain technology.”
The pilot will focus on cross-border payments for corporates, but Swift plans to add more features after that. The organisation also intends to create additional service level agreements for other client groups, with the aim to reduce costs in compliance, liquidity and processing efficiency for cross-border payments as far as possible.
Innotribe is Swift’s long-standing innovation project, which was created in 2009 to bring together industry experts to encourage innovative ideas in financial services, and to provide support to the most promising startups. Earlier this month, Swift made public its plans to expand Innotribe to the emerging markets in Africa and Latin America, as well as the launch of a new industry challenge programme.
