Santander Goes Live On SWIFT gpi

SWIFT announced Thursday (Oct. 11) that Santander, the retail and commercial bank, has gone live on SWIFT’s global payments innovation (gpi) service in Spain, the U.K., Argentina and Poland.

In a press release, SWIFT said Santander will go live in Chile and Mexico on SWIFT gpi by the end of this year. The bank has plans to add more countries next year as well. According to SWIFT, with the gpi service, Santander can offer rapid cross-border payment services with real-time payments tracking, as well as transparency on bank fees and foreign exchange rates.

SWIFT noted that the adoption of gpi is being driven by demand for faster, more transparent cross-border payments. The company added that close to half of gpi payments are credited within 30 minutes, with most credited within seconds and close to 100 percent within 24 hours. SWIFT gpi also enables end clients to track the status of their payments from end to end, and provides visibility into each payment.

“For us, SWIFT gpi represents a good opportunity to improve the experience provided to our clients in their international payments, making the process faster and more transparent while simultaneously making our internal processes more efficient,” Eva Bueno Velayos, head of GTB Spain, Santander Spain said in the press release. “We are looking forward to advancing in the following phases in order to achieve the best possible service in our payments offering.”

According to SWIFT, to date, more than 270 financial institutions across the globe have signed up for SWIFT gpi, with more than $100 billion in gpi payments being sent daily across more than 600 corridors.

“We are delighted to count Santander among the major international banks that are live on SWIFT gpi. By working together to roll out gpi across multiple geographies in parallel, most of Santander’s customers are already able to reap the benefits of what is fast becoming the new industry norm for cross-border payments,” added Alain Raes, Chief Executive EMEA & Asia Pacific, SWIFT in the same press release.