The payments industry has been responding. The G20’s 2027 targets for cross-border payments, focused on enhancements around speed, cost, transparency and access, provide a rallying point which all stakeholders can get behind. Swift, as the global specialist in financial transactions, is supporting these goals too, through infrastructure and innovation, with a suite of value-added solutions that can enhance speed and transparency in cross-border payments.
Simplicity, transparency, and traceability
Our latest research, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, benchmarked more than 90 financial institutions from across the world by using their digital channels to send international payments. Each provider was assessed against three pillars: simplicity, transparency and traceability. We identified three core areas where payment providers can make the most impact. Our findings highlight that success lies in focusing on user-centric design alongside backend efficiencies:
- Make payments simple: Best-in-class providers simplify the user journey by pre-populating fields, validating account details upfront and giving clear instructions.
- Be upfront and transparent: Trusted experiences display fee breakdowns and FX rates early, before providing real-time status updates and beneficiary alerts.
- Capitalise on existing payment solutions. Leading financial institutions (FIs) and fintechs recognise that they can leverage existing rails and infrastructure for steady improvements.
Raising the bar, together
Aligning on these key priorities – to simplify interfaces, keep fees transparent and use existing payment rails – can help us further enhance the cross-border payments experience.
Swift already offers a range of solutions, available as standard to our members, that can enhance the experience for end users. Swift GPI is a global industry-based solution providing real-time, end-to-end tracking for financial institutions, just like tracking a package out for delivery. For corporates, it means better liquidity management, fee visibility and payment certainty. And while the vast majority of transactions over Swift are high-value and wholesale, Swift is also supporting improvements in retail cross-border payments with Swift Go – a solution that enables the same speed, end-to-end tracking, and transparent costs.
In 2024, we worked with 25 FIs and six vendors to demonstrate how the bar can be raised by exposing Swift solutions, including Swift GPI and Swift Go, directly in customer-facing channels. 95% of the participants in this project agreed that Swift’s solutions could enhance end-customer satisfaction.
Working together for an improved last mile
Providing standards for seamless cross-border payments is the very reason that Swift was created, and standards remain key to efficient international financial transactions. The industry is on the brink of a huge milestone, with the migration to ISO 20022 for cross-border payments set to complete in November this year. Swift has been supporting the move since the industry decided to migrate, and continues to ensure a smooth transition. ISO 20022 will mean much more data can be sent with a payment, in a more structured way, providing the potential to transform both institutional processing, and customer-facing services – improving accuracy, transparency, and speed.
Swift is also focused on working with policy makers and other stakeholders, both public and private sector, to address issues in the ‘last mile’ of cross-border payments. It’s ultimately the longest part – taking up 80% of the end-to-end journey time. There’s a common misconception that cross-border payments are slow, when in reality delays that do occur are typically after the plane has landed on the runway – in other words, between the money arriving at the end FI, and it being credited to the customer’s account.
Though 90% of Swift-connected payments now reach the recipient’s FI within an hour, local delays at this beneficiary leg still occur for a variety of reasons, including in relation to batch processing, local regulation and infrastructure. Addressing these for greater standardisation and efficiency requires collaboration between all parties, with policy makers, regulators and clearing systems.
A frictionless future
As an industry, the work we do is about supporting secure and seamless payment flows today, while preparing for what comes next. Whether digital assets, alternative forms of value, or new payment corridors, Swift is committed to working hand in glove with the industry to work towards a frictionless future for cross-border payments.
By keeping the customer experience at the centre and building on what already works, we can usher in a new era of seamless global transactions and experiences.