More Banks Join SWIFT’s Global B2B Payments Pilot

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Payments messaging firm SWIFT is looking to gain support for its global payments initiative and, most recently, announced the latest backers of the pilot program.

In a statement on Tuesday (April 5), SWIFT said 21 more banks have signed onto its effort, which promotes innovation in cross-border payments technology through corresponding banking. The company said it will hope to improve the transparency and speed of global payments with the program.

Among the 21 financial institutions on board are Citi, Bank of China, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. They bring the total number of banks participating in the scheme to 51, reports said.

The program is slated to run through the end of 2016 but will provide an update at this year’s Sibos event, held in September.

“The tight-knit group of leading banks will help to spearhead the testing through the pilot and beyond,” said SWIFT Project Lead and Global Head of the Banking Market Wim Raymaekers in a statement.

“Their commitment is a testament to the initiative and our joint ambition to significantly improve the cross-border payments experience for corporate customers,” he continued. “As we progress, we aim to incorporate additional innovations and deploy new technologies to this global payments innovation initiative and define additional service-level agreements that will cater for other client groups, further reducing the costs and frictions arising from compliance, liquidity and processing efficiency considerations involved in cross-border payments.”

Earlier this year, SWIFT Global Head of Bank Engagement and Global Payments Innovation Stanley Wachs announced the initiative amid a market facing pressure from alternative FinTech disruptors. At the time, 45 banks had agreed to participate in the pilot, a number that Wachs said represented about 70 percent of cross-border B2B payments that travel through banks across the globe.