Fifteen major banks will test Swift's pre-validation service for
The global provider of financial messaging services says the pilot, starting in 2019, is the first stage in the rollout of a GPI validation service that would establish an integrated and interactive way to improve efficiencies in the payments process.
GPI, designed to have banks operating on similar messaging and processes within new technologies or legacy systems, made its debut in 2017.
Swift has a goal of eventually making the new pre-validation service attached to GPI available to all 10,000 banks across its network in the coming years.
Banks testing the service include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of China, Barclays, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, E.SUN Commercial Bank, ICBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan Chase, National Australia Bank, Piraeus Bank, Société Générale and Wells Fargo.
Fully integrated with GPI payments, the service will facilitate real time dynamic bank-to-bank interaction using APIs to improve the predictability and efficiency of international payments, and possibly incorporate predictive analytics.
Based on a real-time API-based mechanism, the pilot will enable sending banks to send and receive API calls over Swift to seamlessly check beneficiary account information with the ultimate receiving banks. This will allow banks to remedy any inaccurate or missing information, reducing delays and costs.
Errors in payment data, such as incorrect or missing beneficiary or incomplete regulatory information, which is necessary for compliance purposes, often hold up those payments that take longer.
Brussels-based Swift says correcting these preventable errors and omissions before the initial instructions are sent will result in a far more efficient payments experience.
A post-payment investigation and reconciliation service that will allow for fast resolution of any remaining factors will complement the service in the future to address any requirements not caught in the pre-testing.
“Swift GPI has already created a fast and frictionless cross-border payment experience for many banks and corporates," Luc Meurant, chief marketing officer at Swift, said in a Wednesday press release. "But we know that there are still payments which can be sped up further by ensuring the correct information is provided at the start."
By embedding the new capability in the same payment messaging channel, thousands of banks will benefit from the resulting efficiencies, Meurant added.
"It boosts the financial services industry as a whole as we move toward universal implementation of GPI in 2020,” he said.
The launch of the pilot comes as Swift GPI has grown to capture more than half of all Swift's cross-border payment volumes. While more than 50 percent of GPI payments are credited to the beneficiary
