Standard Chartered "first" bank to offer public platform to track payment status

Standard Chartered “first” bank to offer public platform to track payment status

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
8th January 2020

Standard Chartered says it is the “first” bank to introduce a public platform for tracking payment statuses, “well ahead of the Swift[‘s] November 2020 payments confirmation mandate”.

The mandate requires all financial institutions on Swift to confirm payments to its tracker “by end 2020”. The financial payments network, which facilitates transactions made through the world’s biggest banks, expedited around half of all high-value cross-border payments made worldwide in 2018.

Swift calls the move by the bank “a sign of leadership, foresight, and innovation”

In order to comply with the network’s imminent requirements, Standard Chartered has launched ‘SC GPI Track’, a publicly-accessible portal which enables all clients to trace all cross border payments cleared through their major clearing centers.

“Given our longstanding history of supporting trade flows across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, we are continuously looking at ways to enhance the trust and dependability of cross-border payments,” says Standard Chartered’s global head of transaction banking Lisa Robins.

“Corporations and financial institutions around the world rely on the confirmation of payments to facilitate the movement of goods and services in order to support the healthy growth of supply chains,” Robins adds.

The bank believes it has “paved the way” for better cross-border payment experiences, by becoming the first to allow clients real-time statuses on payments – all they need is Swift’s unique end-to-end transaction reference (UETR) to trace it.

Swift’s chief business development officer (CBDO) Alain Raes calls the move by the bank “a sign of leadership, foresight, and innovation.”

“For far too long, the industry wanted to believe that a slow, opaque and costly cross-border payment was a technology problem,” Raes continues, pointing out how “transparent and traceable cross-border payments are a reality today”.