SWIFT unveils industry’s first ever cross-border payments tracker

Tracker, the first ever cross-border payments by SWIFT will help corporate treasurers trace their payment at any time with the Swift gpi capability.

SWIFT announces today the availability of its new cross-border payments Tracker that enables international payments to be traced in real-time. The Tracker is the cornerstone of SWIFT gpi – the cooperative’s new payments innovation service – which is revolutionizing the industry by combining real-time payments tracking with the speed and certainty of same-day settlement for international payments.

Available since in January 2017, more than 20 global transaction banks are using or implementing the SWIFT gpi service, with another 50 in the implementation pipeline. Hundreds of thousands of gpi payments have already been sent across more than 85 country corridors.

“Uptake of SWIFT’s gpi service has been encouraging and the addition of the Tracker capability can only help build momentum and accelerate adoption of the service in international payments,” says David Bannister, Principal Analyst, Ovum. “The most common complaint from corporates is the lack of visibility on their payments’ status. With the Tracker capability, SWIFT gpi tackles that issue and will be a useful tool to help corporate treasurers to execute their core responsibilities.”

SWIFT gpi enables companies engaged in international trade to get paid for services, or delivery of goods, in a more timely fashion, enabling a faster supply chain process. The highly innovative gpi Tracker provides corporate treasurers with a real-time, end-to-end view of their payments combined with a confirmation notice when the money reaches the recipient’s account. It also enables a more accurate reconciliation of payments and invoices, optimizes liquidity with improved cash forecasts and reduces exposure to FX risks with same-day processing of funds in the beneficiary’s time zone. The Tracker is available via an open API, making it compatible with proprietary banking systems worldwide – helping to ensure maximum impact of gpi benefits at a greater adoption speed.

SWIFT gpi has garnered considerable industry support across the globe. More than 110 leading transaction banks have committed to the service, representing over 75% of all SWIFT cross-border payments. Recent joiners to SWIFT gpi include: Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Banque Centrale Populaire, BayernLB, China Citic Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corporation, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Denizbank, Ebury, Industrial Bank, Lek Securities, Ping An Bank, Piraeus Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, Shanghai Pudon Development Bank, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Ziraat Bankasi, Westpac Banking Corporation and Yapi Kredi, and Zhejiang Rural Credit Cooperative Union.

The service is also compatible with and integrated into domestic payment market infrastructures (MIs) across the globe, facilitating local clearing and settlement of gpi payments. Banks can already exchange gpi payments over the 56 SWIFT-connected MIs as well as other MIs that have established local market practices for their participants that use the gpi service. SWIFT will also continue to actively engage with additional MI communities for future gpi compatibility.

“Today’s announcement is a significant step towards a game-changing experience for corporates the world over,” says Christian Sarafidis, Chief Marketing Officer, SWIFT. “By taking advantage of the right technology, at the right time, with the right players behind us, SWIFT has successfully helped correspondent banking reach a significant milestone in its evolution.”

Wim Raymaekers, Programme Manager for SWIFT gpi adds, “This is only the beginning for SWIFT gpi. We will continue to explore new technologies, such as blockchain, and deliver more value added payment services further transforming the international payments landscape and, in doing so, accelerating global trade.”

Participating gpi banks that are live, implementing or in the implementation pipeline            

ABN AMRO Bank, ABSA Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Alfa-Bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group,  Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Bank of New York Mellon, Banco Santander,Banque Centrale Populaire,  Barclays, BayernLB, BNP Paribas, China Citic Bank, China Construction Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corporation, Citibank, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Commerzbank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Crédit Mutuel-CIC Banques, Danske Bank, DBS Bank, Denizbank, Deutsche Bank, DNB Bank, Ebury,  Erste Group Bank, FirstRand Bank, Guangfa Bank, HSBC, Guangfa Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Industrial Bank, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, INTL FCStone, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KBC Bank, KEB Hana Bank, Lek Securities, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq Bank, Mizuho Bank, National Australia Bank, Natixis, Nedbank, Nordea Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Ping An Bank, Piraeus bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, Rabobank, Raiffeisen Bank International,  Royal Bank of Canada, Sberbank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Société Générale,  Standard Bank of South Africa, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Tadhamon International Islamic Bank, TEB, Toronto-Dominion Bank, UniCredit, Wells Fargo, Westpac Banking Corporation, Yapi Kredi, Zhejiang Rural Credit Cooperative Union, and Ziraat Bank

“Gpi enables an attractive client value offering, providing a service that promotes quality, speed, predictability and transparency by utilizing the new API solution” – Larize Nel, Portfolio Manager, CIB Africa Technology, ABSA Bank

“Transparency is key to a good end-to-end client experience. SWIFT gpi is a significant step in the evolution of correspondent banking, which remains the primary means through which cross-border payments are delivered worldwide.  Bank of America Merrill Lynch is pleased to be working with like-minded institutions around the world to better serve each other and our respective customers.”- Greg Murray, head of Global Product Management for High Value Payments and FI/NBFI Products in Global Transaction Services at Bank of America Merrill Lynch

“As one of the earliest banks participating in SWIFT gpi, Bank of China (BOC) has not only achieved good results with a leading position in the implementation of gpi, but also played an important role in rule making, pilot testing and long-term planning. In January of this year, BOC has become one of the go-live banks in the world. Up to now, our gpi business has covered 50 domestic and overseas BOC branches and 11 major currencies, with rapid growth of channels and customer coverage. Meanwhile, based on gpi, we have launched “Bank of China, Global Payment Intelligence” (BOC-GPI). Since gpi went live in January, we have received good feedbacks from both customers and markets. SWIFT gpi is gradually becoming a preferred or even favoured payment product choice for customers. Customer’s praises and responses have showed us gpi’s remarkable results, which are indeed the gpi aim and value. By solving the deficiencies in global payment, customer experience has been highly improved and the competitiveness of commercial banks has also increased. The gpi project is an important SWIFT initiative in promoting the innovation and development of global payment. It conforms to the needs of the market and customers, and reflects the consensus of the global banking industry. It is hoped that, based on gpi, we wish not only to be able to follow the market needs, but also to guide and create market demands in the global payment field. We also hope that gpi will soon become a new normal in global cross-border payment. – Mr. Wu Jianguang, General Manager of Clearing Dept, Bank of China

“Reducing friction in cross-border payments is a priority for us and our clients. Through effective collaboration, SWIFT and its members have created an innovative solution that will make the payments process simpler for all parties. We’re always aiming to make day-to-day banking easier for our clients, and look forward to introducing the gpi service to help achieve this goal.” – Dan Roberts, Head of Transaction Banking Products and Services at Barclays Corporate Banking

“The high transparency of the SWIFT gpi will be of great importance for our customers and savings banks. We strongly believe that gpi payments will be processed faster and will sooner or later be the “new normal” for the international payments.” – Gerhard Schwab – Head of Payment Services, BayernLB

“At BNP Paribas, we are proud to be an active participant in Swift gpi since day 1. We are committed to help the community grow fast and strive for making gpi the new normal. “- Philippe Vexlard, Head of Correspondent Banking CIB EMEA, BNP Paribas

“Denizbank has been one of the first banks to join SWIFT gpi in Turkey. Now with SWIFT gpi, it will be able to give further traceability and transparency on the cross border payments. We believe that soon , SWIFT gpi will be the global standard for corresponding banking. Being awarded as the most innovative bank in the world in BAI 2014, EFMA 2015 and BAI 2016, Denizbank will be a pioneer  SWIFT gpi user  as part of our operational excellence approach “ – Mustafa ÖZEL , Executive Vice President, Branch and Central Operations, Denizbank

“The cloud based tracker accessible via API is the ‘innovative component’ of the gpi initiative. It connects all payment parties and fosters a better level of client experience.” – Christian Westerhaus, Head of Product and Strategy, Institutional Cash Management, Deutsche Bank

“We have been watching the SWIFT gpi service evolve since its announcement and are pleased to have joined so that Ebury can pass on the benefits to our corporate clients. Payment innovations have focused on personal payments in recent years, gpi is a big step forward in the corporate space.  Ebury look forward to working with partner banks in the gpi scheme and encourage all banks to sign up and meet the SLAs to improve the high value cross-border transaction experience for corporates.” – Mark Hewlett, Wholesale Banking Relationship Director, Ebury

“SWIFT gpi is one of the key innovation initiatives in the cross-border payments space that could happen to our customers. It is fast, transparent, trackable and moreover it is done within a trusted network.” – Petia Niederländer, Head of Group Retail & Corporates Operations & Tanja Peic, Head of Payments Operations & Clearing, Erste Group

“Groupe Banque Populaire (GBP) is one of the leading financial institutions in the Kingdom of Morocco. It derives its strength from its values ​​of solidarity, mutuality and its unique organization in Morocco. By joining the SWIFT gpi initiative, the GBP proves its capacity to innovate and deliver quality services for its customers and its correspondent banking network. SWIFT gpi is perfectly in line with GBP’s strategic priorities which are, among others, the optimization and security of international operations.” – Mohammed Ghliel, Director of process management & in charge of SWIFT’s network development, Groupe Banque Populaire

“We believe SWIFT gpi will transform the cross-border payment landscape. By leveraging the well-established SWIFT network, gpi will have impressive geographic reach and deliver a superior payment experience for our clients, meaning payments will arrive more quickly, and with greater transparency and predictability.

The ability to deliver enhanced remittance information alongside the payment will help customers make better decisions along the payment chain, while also creating better efficiency opportunities.

The decision to make gpi available in the “cloud” is also exciting, and we anticipate this will lead to the development of entirely new services, that combine SWIFT gpi with capabilities provided by banks, clients and vendors. “- Tom Halpin, Global Head of Payments Product Management, HSBC Global Liquidity and Cash Management

“SWIFT gpi created a new era for cross-border payments. From the perspective of commercial banks, participating in SWIFT gpi facilitates to consolidate the traditional dominance and further improves the quality and efficiency of cross-border payments. The active involvement of inter-bank multilateral cooperation among gpi members dedicates greatly to the enrichment and optimization of global clearing network. The banks will furnish superior clearing service via applying the latest technological and innovative achievements, which contributes to improve customer experience of international payments. ICBC relies on the unified clearing system, initiates integrated development strategy and achieves to deploy the rule of gpi within ICBC group. ICBC will exert the predominance of global business distribution to further expand the service network, provide more premium and efficient cross-border payment services for clients and financial institutions.” – Peng Hua, Deputy Head of Clearing Center, Operation Management Department, ICBC

“We are honoured to be the first non-bank participant in SWIFT’s global payments innovation initiative, and plan to utilize our unique expertise in exotic currencies and the developing world to promote greater speed, transparency, and predictability for cross-border payments. SWIFT has taken a leadership position in enhancing cross-border transactions and bringing together over 70 leading global banks in order to improve business operations and supplier relationships, and achieve greater treasury efficiencies.  With our unique knowledge base, we look forward to contributing to the initiative and enhancing SWIFT’s mission of improving efficiency and transparency in cross-border payments.”  – Carsten Hils, Global Head of INTL FCStone Ltd’s Global Payments Division

“Through this cooperative effort, SWIFT global payments innovation initiative will provide our customers the ability to see where their payments are at any point in the transaction process and provide visibility of fees and FX rates.” – Emma Loftus, Head of Global Payments and FX for J.P. Morgan

“As part of our commitment to excellence, Lek Securities thrives in times of innovation. With the new gpi initiative, Lek Securities and SWIFT are partnering to bring efficiency and transparency to the payment markets.” – Nicolas Louis, President of Lek Securities

“We are proud to be the first bank in our region to join SWIFT gpi. We are always keen to be at the forefront of innovation in our industry and strive to offer our customers the best services available. With our customers in the region operating across multiple trade corridors, we look forward to working with SWIFT to deliver a faster, more transparent and more traceable cross-border payments offering.” – Sandeep Chouhan, Group Head of Operations and Technology, Mashreq Bank

“Mashreq is happy to be part of SWIFT gpi, which is one among the many initiatives undertaken by SWIFT to facilitate change in the correspondent banking business by bringing in more transparency and speed. As the first bank in the region to join this program, Mashreq has always been a pioneer in UAE in delivering innovative solutions that meets the dynamic and holistic needs of its customers.  Mashreq’s digitization roadmap is closely aligned with SWIFT gpi program and we look forward to work with SWIFT to make this a success”. – Jan-Willem Sudmann, Group Head International Banking, Mashreq Bank

“SWIFT gpi is critical for the banking industry to remain relevant and competitive in the cross-border payments space. OCBC is committed to being an integral part of this initiative as we continue to bring value to our customers through enhanced payment services. SWIFT gpi will provide them with faster, greater transparency in their cross-border payments and better optimisation of their group liquidity requirements. “- Greg Trotter, Head of Cash Management, Global Transaction Banking, OCBC Bank

“Piraeus Bank Greece, as a pioneer in innovative products and local market leader, participates in gpi to provide transparency, efficiency and real time processing of payments, and thus to offer additional value to its customers.”- Efi Hatziantoniou, Senior Director, Fund Transfers & Central Operations, Piraeus Bank

“Our focus is on increased efficiency and continuous improvement of our customer services. Therefore RBI is delighted to be part of SWIFT gpi. It is a highly important project as we see the need to further enhance cross-border payment services as well as the added value of end-to-end payment tracking and enhanced transparency.” – Susanne Prager, Head of Cash Management, Raiffeisen Bank International AG

“Innovation is core to our thinking at RBC and we see gpi as a way to enable our clients to conveniently and securely track their cross-border wire payments,” says Lisa Lansdowne-Higgins, VP Business Deposits & Treasury Solutions, Royal Bank of Canada. “This is just one example of how we work with a wide range of companies to respond to our clients’ expectations and preferences in the digital age.”

“In today transactional banking business, transparency on cross border payment is probably the one the market longs for quite some time. This SWIFT global payment initiative is a key enabler for the industry to bring cross border payment services to the new level in term of tracking and fee transparency. SCB is very pleased to participate in this initiative which also aligns with our commitment to provide our clients a better experience in cross border payment space.” – Pipat Assamongkol, First Executive Vice President, Global Transaction Services Department, Siam Commercial Bank

“We believe SWIFT gpi made another critical step towards innovation in cross-border payments services. Seeing more banks taking up gpi prove the success of this initiative. SMBC is proud to be a part of this initiative from the pilot and keen to bring new experience to our customer soon.” – Airo Shibuya, Senior General Manager, Transaction Business Planning Dept., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

“TEB   (TURK EKONOMI BANKASI) has been one of the first banks to join SWIFT gpi in Turkey. Gulumser Ozgun Henden, Corporate Banking, Assistant General Manager of TEB , has said, “ TEB has always had the most innovative product offer in the market. We are proud to be the bank that anticipates and meets our clients’ requirements with cutting edge technology. Now with SWIFT gpi, we will be able to give them further traceability and transparency on their cross border payments. We believe that soon , SWIFT gpi will be the global standard and we take pride in the fact that we  have become one of the first banks to pave the way.” – Gulumser Ozgun Henden, Corporate Banking, Assistant General Manager of TEB

“Since we went live with gpi, we identified strong interest from corporates wanting to take advantage of this new service.” “We are developing pilot projects for large corporate clients so they can benefit from gpi directly via their SWIFT connectivity, whilst updating our banking portals for smaller clients. To offer a complete package to corporates, more gpi corridors and currency options are required,” Kupfer says. “We are confident this will naturally grow over time when more banks join gpi. Furthermore we are about to build a coherent offer for gpi banks internationally with the aim of becoming their go-to bank in corridors where we are active.”- Jan Kupfer, Global Co-Head of Global Transaction Banking at UniCredit

“As a market leader we are investing in transformation technologies to support the needs of the financial services industry. This development is a good example that will fundamentally advance the cross boarder payments experience.”- Di Challenor Westpac’s General Manager, Global Transaction Services

“As a pioneer of banking sector’s recent developments in innovation and digital transformation, Yapı Kredi has decided to be a member of SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi). SWIFT gpi will add value to our clients’ cross-border payments through reduced settlement time, improved reconciliation and forecast reporting speed and visibility on the payments. Yapı Kredi, as the “Digital Bank of Turkey”, will continue to invest in further innovative approaches.” – Aycan Ozden, Financial Institutions – Regional Head – Yapi Kredi

“Ziraat Bank is taking a new step of acceleration to its’ cross-border payments  by joining SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi) and proud to be one of the first and major participiant banks in Turkey as well as other global Banks all over the world. Being  the  leading bank in Turkish banking sector and attaching great importance to customer satisfaction, Ziraat Bank is focused on applying the gpi’s new solution to its Business models, in order to benefit from a faster, more transparent and traceable end-to-end view on the status of cross-border payments.  Ziraat Bank’s customers will not only experience the real-time efficiency in the status reports of crossborder payments but also benefit from the transparency of fees. Gpi’s Distributed Ledger Technology solution is considered as an important step towards holding the potential to a highly improved nostro reconciliation process.” – Bilgehan Kuru, Executive Vice President – Treasury Management and International Banking – Ziraat Bank

SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance.

Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world.

As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community’s access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. SWIFT also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern.

Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT’s international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.