Financial messaging service Swift has issued its latest standards release, which includes various changes, most notably for payments messages and to SWIFT global payment innovation (gpi) initiative.

There are several mandatory amendments mostly relating to the UETR (Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference). In this SWIFT release all users of Category 1 and 2 messages will be impacted, regardless of whether or not they use the SWIFT gpi service.

Global fintech provider Volante Technologies confirmed that it has incorporated the necessary changes to the messages as well as provided full support for SWIFT gpi, including the supplementary message format validation rules in SWIFT 2019, which covers the syntax and semantic validations to be performed for various MT messages impacted by these changes.

Volante’s SWIFT standards update also includes support for flexible access to SWIFT gpi data in SWIFTRef repositories.

Christine Barry, research director at Aite Group, commented, “As financial message standards evolve it is important that systems within financial institutions quickly understand the changes and take advantage of what they may offer in terms of potential increased processing efficiency and the business advantages they may bring.”

Venkat Malla, VP Product Management, Volante Technologies, added, “. This update is important not just for our clients, but for the industry as a whole, as we continue to support the revolution in the payments industry as it moves increasingly towards a more real-time environment.”

R3 partnership

At the end of last month Swift’s CEO, Gottfried Liebbrandt, announced that the institution would be partnering with blockchain start-up R3, despite past keen rivalry between the two.

Established in 2014, R3 leads a consortium of major financial institutions and aims to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and the banking industry.

Under the new partnership, Swift will link its GPI technology to R3’s  blockchain platform Corda. Firms using R3’s Corda network will be able to authorise and settle payments with the help of a gateway called GPI Link, Swift said.