- New Swift scheme will require full predictability on price and speed for retail transactions with no hidden fees, full value transfers and instant settlement where domestic infrastructure and regulations allow
- Over 30 banks have committed to kickstarting the framework and will work with Swift to evolve the interbank model to ensure a best-in-class experience
- Initiative marks Swift's latest strategic step to elevate the cross-border experience toward G20 goals and builds on strong momentum that already has accelerated 75% of payments to reach beneficiary banks within 10 minutes
Swift and its participant banks today take another bold next step toward making cross-border payments as seamless as domestic ones. Swift will introduce new network rules to ensure a consistently fast and predictable experience for consumers and small businesses sending money anywhere in the world.
Swift is developing the new scheme framework with a voluntary coalition of over 30 early adopter banks to provide retail customers with the peace of mind and predictability they expect when sending money internationally. The rules will ensure upfront transparency on payment costs, guaranteed full value delivery, end-to-end visibility and a commitment to instant settlement where available.
Financial institutions will leverage the advanced capabilities on the Swift platform typically used for wholesale payments to enhance cross-border retail payments. Recent upgrades have significantly improved the experience, enabling fully transparent transfers that exceed G20 targets, with 75 percent of payments reaching beneficiary banks within 10 minutes. Initiatives like Swift Go and experience benchmarking have already benefited consumer channels, and the scheme will further extend the advantages to 4 billion accounts in over 200 countries.
Thierry Chilosi, Chief Business Officer at Swift, said: "Swift has worked with its community over the past few years to significantly raise the bar on the cross-border payments experience. And now, together with the industry, we are bringing those same benefits to retail customers around the world. The new scheme will ensure that consumers and small businesses will experience fast and predictable international payments, whether sending money to family abroad or paying an overseas supplier."
Banks from 17 countries will work with Swift to set the retail rules in stages, including defining mechanisms to ensure adherence. The banks include:
Absa | Commerzbank | Mizuho |
ANZ | Commonwealth Bank of Australia | NatWest |
Axis Bank | Crédit Agricole | OCBC Bank |
Banco Bradesco | Deutsche Bank | Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) |
Banco Santander | Ecobank | Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB) |
Bank of America | Emirates NBD | Societe Generale |
Banorte | FirstRand Bank | TD Bank Group |
BBVA | ICICI Bank | UOB |
BNP Paribas | Itaú Unibanco | Wells Fargo |
BNY | JPMorgan Chase | Westpac |
Citi | Lloyds Bank |
The work advances the 2027 G20 Roadmap for cross-border payments, which Swift has made a strategic priority. It has made strong progress in the "in-flight" cross-border leg, and it has also been doing additional work to help remove friction in end-to-end transaction chains. It has put considerable focus in the domestic "last mile" leg to help move the needle. A new paper published today shows that the Swift cross-border leg accounts for just 20% of the total time of an average cross-border transaction. A full 80% is spent in the last mile, after a payment leaves the Swift network, because of factors including domestic regulations, bank and domestic market infrastructure capabilities and local market practices.
Chilosi added: "At Swift, we are committed to being an open network and doing all that we can to elevate the end customer experience right across the ecosystem. That includes working with policymakers to identify and address frictions that impact flows regardless of the way value moves-while paving the way for the next generation of payment options."
The scheme has broad support from coalition banks:
Carl Garrett, Head of Cross Border Payments, ANZ, said: "Improving customer experience in cross border payments is a clear priority for ANZ. Coordination across the financial system is essential in enabling us to deliver the predictability, transparency, and speed our customers expect. Swift's proposed scheme leverages their track record of global network standardisation to drive a global uplift in capabilities. ANZ looks forward to this collaboration and the opportunity to help improve the clearing and cross border payments experience for our customers."
Ricardo Velázquez Rodríguez, Head of International Banking Division, Banorte, said: "At Banorte, we partner with Swift to drive innovation and shape the future of cross-border payments. By actively collaborating with leading financial institutions across the global ecosystem, we remain at the forefront of technological advancement. Our clients are always at the centre of everything we do-we are committed to delivering the solutions they need today while building the banking services of tomorrow."
Marcos Cavagnoli, Director, Bradesco, said: "Bradesco upholds a continuous commitment to innovation. The collaboration with Swift to enhance the international payments experience marks another step in this journey. This initiative is focused on delivering faster, more efficient, and secure global transactions."
Eva Rubio, Head of Global Transaction Banking, BBVA Corporate Investment Banking, said: "Interoperability is key to the future of cross-border payments. At BBVA, we have already seen in Europe how instant payments can transform the experience for both corporates and individuals. With Swift's initiative, we are taking the next step to extend those benefits at a global scale. This collaboration will enable us to offer our clients cross-border transactions that are truly 24/7, with full transparency, security and reliability-further strengthening our commitment to lead innovation in transaction banking."
Pierre Fersztand, Global Head of Cash Management, Payments, Trade and Factoring, BNP Paribas said: "We are excited to join Swift's new scheme, defining the next step in raising the industry's global standards for fast and frictionless cross-border payments and this in full alignment with the G20 objectives. Our customers expect speed, security and predictability when sending money internationally and this initiative improves on all three with immediate effect using the trusted and reliable Swift infrastructure. By collaborating with Swift and our peers, we are ensuring that our customers can send payments with great confidence."
Carl Slabicki, Executive Platform Owner, Treasury Services, BNY, said: "At BNY, we recognize the importance of making cross-border payments as simple and predictable as possible. Initiatives like this scheme can enable financial institutions across the globe to provide their retail clients with a modern, transformative cross-border remittance experience. By sharing our perspective alongside other industry participants, we are helping set new standards that make international payments faster and more reliable for everyone."
Debopama Sen, Head of Payments, Services, Citi, said: "Participating in this exciting Swift initiative underscores our deep commitment to putting customers first. By enhancing predictability and efficiency, we are empowering businesses and individuals to transact globally with greater ease and confidence. This marks a meaningful development for our industry and for the millions who rely on fast, transparent international payments. It truly establishes a new benchmark."
Simone Loefgen, Global Head of Payment Platforms, Commerzbank, said: "Taking part in Swift's scheme is a significant step forward in demonstrating our industry's collective commitment to delivering faster, secure and more predictable cross-border payments for our customers. This initiative establishes a new benchmark for international transactions and highlights the impact of a united approach to ensuring payments reach end users with greater reliability and speed than ever before."
Susan Yang, General Manager, High Value International Payments, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said: "As part of the coalition driving the scheme layer initiative, CBA is proud to work with Swift and other banks to develop a model to ensure an optimal cross-border payments experience. This means consumers and small businesses will benefit from fast and predictable international payments whether they're sending money to family overseas or paying suppliers abroad."
Ole Matthiessen, Global Head of Cash Management Head of Corporate Bank APAC MEA, Deutsche Bank, said: "Swift's new scheme reflects the power of industry-wide collaboration to deliver meaningful change for cross-border payments. By committing to full transparency and predictability on cost and speed, we are collectively raising the bar for customer experience. It's a decisive step toward a more inclusive, efficient, and trusted global payments ecosystem, one that aligns with the G20 goals and meets the evolving expectations of individuals and businesses worldwide."
Anith Daniel, Group Head of Transaction Banking Services, Emirates NBD, said: "We are committed to enhancing the cross-border payment experience for our customers. The new scheme introduced by Swift aligns with our vision to provide fast, transparent, and predictable international payments. By leveraging Swift's advanced capabilities, we can ensure that our retail customers enjoy the same level of efficiency and reliability that has been the hallmark of wholesale payments. This initiative not only meets the G20 targets for speed but also brings peace of mind to consumers and small businesses, knowing that their international transactions are handled with utmost precision and care."
Lori Schwartz, Global Head of Treasury Services, J.P. Morgan Payments, said: "Cross-border payments are a cornerstone of the global economy Swift's digital initiative provides an exciting opportunity to transform cross-border payments for the benefit of all participants and their customers. We look forward to working with Swift and the coalition to build infrastructure that supports moving money faster and with less friction across borders."
Stuart Bailey, Head of Industry, Strategy and Design, Payments CIO, at Lloyds Bank, said: "Participating in this new scheme reflects our ongoing commitment to improving the customer experience in cross-border payments. By embracing greater transparency and predictability, we are helping to remove friction for individuals and businesses alike. This initiative opens the door to new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and trust across the payments ecosystem."
Simon Eacott, Head of Payments, NatWest, said: "Participating in this initiative from Swift underscores our commitment to putting customers first. The outcome we all seek is greater predictability and efficiency in international payments, and joining this initiative, we are aiming to further empower small businesses and customers to transact globally with increased ease and confidence. This will mark meaningful progress for our industry and for millions of businesses and people that rely on fast, transparent international payments."
Mr. Melvyn Low, Head of Global Transaction Banking, OCBC, said: "We're excited to be among the first group of banks to participate in the new Swift scheme, which will enable our clients to make cross-border payments securely and efficiently around the clock, and with transparency on the cost. This initiative is all about bringing 24/7, cost-effective and reliable international payments to our consumer and SME clients across our core markets in Asia."
Erica Nielsen, Group Head, RBC Personal Banking, said: "RBC is proud to join Swift's new scheme and help raise the global standard for transparency in cross-border payments. Our clients expect speed, security and predictability when sending money internationally and this initiative delivers on all three with immediate effect using the reliable Swift infrastructure. By collaborating with Swift and our peers, we are ensuring that retail customers and small businesses can send payments around the world with greater confidence than ever before."
Andreea Parneci, Deputy Head of Global Transaction and Payment Services at Societe Generale, said: "We look forward to collaborating with Swift's coalition. Collectively we can work together to further enhance the user experience, especially given the increasingly fragmented payments landscape. Developing a dedicated framework for retail payments will offer faster, more transparent and more secure payments for all our clients."
Christopher Chazin, Managing Director Head of Transaction Banking Product, TD Securities, said: "At TD, we're dedicated to supporting our clients with innovative solutions, strong safeguards, and a seamless approach to transaction banking. We're thrilled to work with Swift on this initiative, helping to further evolve the interbank model to ensure a seamless, secure, and a best-in-class experience."
So Lay Hua, Head of Group Transaction Banking, UOB, said: "We are joining this coalition to represent our wholesale and retail clients across the region to shape the payments landscape. UOB looks forward to working with Swift to benefit our community as the One Bank for ASEAN."
About Swift
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 11,500 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 globally inclusive character of its cooperative structure. Swift's global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.
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