SWIFT has activated the world’s first live gpi instant connection, a new service that enables consumers and businesses to send cross-border payments in seconds, around the clock via their financial institutions, the organisation said recently.
While Lloyds Banking Group is the first to go live with the service and the UK is the first market where it is available, SWIFT said it expects adoption to continue globally as demand for an instant cross-border experience rises.
Remittance payments from anywhere in the world destined for the UK routed through Lloyds can arrive in seconds with fee and foreign exchange transparency, security and full regulatory compliance, SWIFT said.
The gpi Instant service works by connecting SWIFT gpi, the high-speed cross-border rails with real-time domestic infrastructure, in this case the UK’s Faster Payments, according to the global member-owned cooperative.
In addition, the gpi Instant service is the culmination of several trials conducted by SWIFT with banks and payment infrastructures, SWIFT said, adding that the go-live follows a pilot that took place earlier this year and involved banks including Lloyds, Barclays, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, DBS, Wells Fargo and BBVA.
It saw cross-border payments credited to accounts in the UK in seconds and built on the successful proof of concepts run by SWIFT and market infrastructures in Singapore, Australia and in Europe over the past two years, the organisation noted.
In September 2020, SWIFT announced a new strategy to fundamentally transform payments and securities processing by retooling cross-border infrastructure to enable the world’s financial institutions to deliver instant and frictionless end-to-end transactions.
