SWIFT Pilot Focused On Reducing Payment Message Errors

SWIFT has announced the launch of a pilot program for an integrated gpi payments service designed to enable the fast identification and elimination of errors in payment messages.

Working with 14 major banks around the world, the service will utilize a real-time API-based mechanism so that banks can send and receive API calls over SWIFT to check beneficiary account information. This will allow banks to quickly remedy any inaccurate or missing information.

“SWIFT gpi has already created a fast and frictionless cross-border payment experience for many banks and corporates – but we know that there are still payments which can be sped up further by ensuring the correct information is provided at the start,” said Luc Meurant, chief marketing officer of SWIFT, in a press release. “By embedding this new capability in the same payment messaging channel, thousands of banks will benefit from the resulting efficiencies, thus boosting the financial services industry as a whole as we move toward universal implementation of gpi in 2020.”

The pilot is part of a broader gpi pre-validation program, which will also look at using predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to improve the predictability of international payments.

“The gpi pre-validation pilot is a significant step forward for the payments industry in building a platform on which banks can interact with each other in real time, both pre-transaction and post-transaction,” added Manish Kohli, global head of payments and receivables at Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions. “It demonstrates how banks can leverage SWIFT gpi to continue to transform cross border payments. This service is an enabler of our goal to provide real-time ubiquitous cross-border payments by allowing banks and our clients to rectify any issues at the point of origination, achieving seamless end-to-end fulfillment along the payments delivery chain.”

With the pilot banks, SWIFT will agree on the global industry specifications for the gpi pre-validation service by the end of this year, while the pilot is set to start in early 2019.