SWIFT, SAP Streamline Corporates’ Multi-Bank Relations

SWIFT and SAP are collaborating to facilitate corporate-to-bank connectivity into the SWIFT network, the companies recently announced.

The payments messaging firm and the enterprise software conglomerate revealed they are working together to streamline corporate treasury’s integration into the SWIFT network via financial institutions. Dubbed SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity, the solution was built on SAP Cloud Platform technology. SAP S/4HANA users that need to connect into multiple banks can use the solution and quickly be onboarded into the SWIFT network.

SWIFT and SAP said businesses can either imbed SWIFT network connectivity or connect to multiple banks via their existing financial institution partners. The solution offers a streamlined solution for treasurers to manage all of a company’s bank relationships.

“Businesses require flexibility to establish relationships with multiple financial institutions,” the companies said in their announcement. “Multi-bank corporates often face challenges collecting, streamlining and implementing the integration of each bank partner.”

“With this partnership, we can simplify bank connectivity for our clients, providing them with banking communication across multiple banks and countries,” said SAP Senior Director, Solution Management Treasury Christian Mnich. “The embedded solution allows companies to accelerate project implementations and increase security standards by leveraging the secured, shared infrastructure provided by SAP’s cloud platform.”

“The objective is to lower the barriers of entry that exist for corporates to reach all their banks globally,” said SWIFT Head of Corporates and Supply Chain Marc Delbaere in another statement. “With the embedded SWIFT connectivity, corporates have direct access to all banks worldwide. This integrated solution is going to ease the lives of many corporate treasurers.”

Earlier this month, SWIFT announced the enhancement of its payment tracking capabilities, expanding its gpi Tracker solution to include tracking of all payment instructions across the SWIFT network, regardless if a financial institution is part of gpi or not. The expansion enables banks to track the status of transactions across borders and gather that information for their own customers.