Nearly US$77 trillion in cross-border payments were transferred via SWIFT gpi in 2019, almost doubling the US$40 trillion sent by the community’s members in 2018.

Alongside the traffic growth, the proportion of intergroup payments sent via gpi also grew to 65%, while the number of live country corridors almost doubled to 1,939. Over 50% of SWIFT gpi payments are now credited to end beneficiaries within 30 minutes, while over 3,900 members are using the service.

“Over the past year, our community has increasingly recognised the dramatically improved speed, certainty and overall cross-border experience gpi delivers and so we have seen a significant uptick in adoption, value transferred and the number of live corridors,” commented Carlo Palmers, head of Payments Solutions at SWIFT.

What lies ahead?

Momentum for gpi continues to grow. 2020 promises even more, with a number of milestones that SWIFT hopes will deliver more and greater value to its community.

Payments in an instant

Payments on SWIFT gpi are fast: for over 50% of payments, funds are credited to the end beneficiary within 30 minutes, many happen in seconds. Throughout 2020, it will continue to make payments even faster, by building on successful trials that combine the power of gpi with domestic real-time payments systems.

“By combining gpi and domestic real-time payments networks, SWIFT is facilitating instant international payments with fee and foreign exchange transparency,” said Palmers. “The technology is in place, it is proven and is paving the way for reliable, real-time, round-the-clock cross-border payments.”

End-to-end tracking to all

SWIFT also wants to bring the features of gpi - speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking - to as many SWIFT members as possible. A part of this is enabling universal confirmations. By the end of 2020, every cross-border payment (MT 103) on SWIFT will come with final confirmation that the funds have been credited to the end beneficiary, regardless of whether or not it’s been sent on gpi.

By unlocking this transparency on all cross-border payments, SWIFT says it is helping the community reduce costs and deliver an improved experience for their customers.

Reducing friction

A new pre-validation service based on gpi rails will allow financial institutions to confirm that beneficiary account details are correct before sending the payment. This is designed to prevent bottlenecks and failed transfers.

SWIFT’s case resolution service should enable the smooth and automated resolution of transactions when there is a problem with a payment, reducing the need for manual intervention, cutting costs and improving the customer experience.

Extending gpi to new segments

SWIFT says it is also continuing to deliver the benefits of gpi to new segments. For end customers, such as corporates and SMEs, it is supporting new levels of transparency and tracking capabilities, to deliver a completely transformed user experience. For firms operating in the capital markets and financial institutions settling cash movements, SWIFT says it is enabling new efficiencies courtesy of improved transparency through access to the Tracker.