SWIFT Rolls Out Payment Investigation, Resolution Service

SWIFT is expanding its network-wide payments validation toolkit, announcing Thursday (May 2) a new “in-flight” cloud-based payment investigation and resolution service.

In a press release, SWIFT said the new feature allows for dynamic query handling between banks on the SWIFT network. With the tool, banks can quickly resolve instances where operational, regulator or compliance information is incorrect or is missing from the payment instructions. SWIFT said the tool complements its gpi pre-validation service that identifies and eliminates errors and omissions in the payment messages before the payment is initiated. The feature is integrated directly into SWIFT gpi and will ultimately be made available to all of the 10,000 banks in the SWIFT network, the company said in the press release.

“In our drive towards frictionless payments, we are working together with banks and software providers to bring in a fully integrated, network-wide service to ensure a smooth payments process,” said Harry Newman, head of banking at SWIFT. “It has been a consistent bug-bear of many banks that, whilst only a minority of payments are held up by errors and missing information, they are frustrating, time-consuming and costly.”

According to SWIFT, the instances of errors or missing information are infrequent but can take a long time to resolve. They often require additional information and validation. SWIFT said they can be caused by missing or incorrect information, including the reason for the payment or the settlement date, and because of differences in regulatory controls and requirements across different jurisdictions.

SWIFT said the new tool will improve transparency, shorten resolution time and reduce the need for manual interventions. Users will be able to find any issues by using the gpi tracker and will also be able to identify the beneficiary or intermediary banks that are causing the issues. Users can then use API calls and the gpi tracker to automatically exchange the necessary information directly with the banks.

“In addition to our goal of providing real-time ubiquitous cross-border payments, our ambition is to ensure that any associated customer inquiries are transacted real-time. gpi case resolution is a very important step forward as it provides the platform for banks, across the payment chain, to interact in a far more dynamic, efficient and transparent manner than today and thus ultimately better serve our clients. Case resolution is well-placed to build on the scale and reach of gpi to transform how inquiries associated with cross-border payments are resolved,” said Mark McNulty, Global Head Clearing & FI Payments at Citi, about the bank’s trial with the SWIFT product.

SWIFT said in the first stage of the rollout the service will be piloted by twelve major banks and three case management software providers. SWIFT said it’s slated to go live in November of 2019.