SWIFT planning to start testing multi-bank standard to improve its service

Cross-border payments provider SWIFT, along with 22 corporates and banks, is planning to start testing an enhanced multi-bank standard to improve its service for multi-banked corporate houses.

The new standard has been designed and built in conjunction with 10 multi-national corporates and 12 leading banks. This collaboration tailors SWIFT’s global payments innovation (GPI) for multi-banked corporates, by introducing a common solution, which will be delivered in the same way as by all gpi banks.

These innovations come in the face of the network facing fierce competition from new entrants such as Ripple which provide faster and cheaper cross-border transfers.

SWIFT’s new standard would enable corporate treasurers to initiate and track gpi payments to and from multiple banks in a single format and integrate GPI flows into ERP and Treasury Management Systems.

“This new standard will enable application providers and banks to give corporates better visibility and transparency, improving payments’ certainty, traceability, exception handling and allowing them to reconcile directly in their treasury operations,” SWIFT has said.

Corporates and banks participating in the pilot project include Airbus, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Booking.com, Borealis, Citi, Deutsche Bank, General Electric, IATA, Intesa Sanpaolo, J.P. Morgan, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Microsoft, National Australia Bank, Ping An Group, Roche, RTL Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Société Générale, Standard Chartered Bank and UniCredit. The test phase of the project would begin in a few months.

While SWIFT has been vocal about its focus on security rather than competing with the newer entrants for speed, its recent innovations reflect a rising demand for real-time payments.

“Corporates want to track payments in real time and get confirmation of credit to the beneficiary’s account,” says Kiran Shetty, head of India and Sub-continent at SWIFT.

“This new multi-bank capability will enable that experience in a consistent fashion, across multiple banks and corporates. Having this information instantly in the corporate treasury space is what corporate customers are asking for,” he added.