SWIFT to Eliminate Frictions in International Payments by Upfront Verification of Account Details in Real Time

SWIFT today announced the go-live of a service that will enable banks to verify payee account details before an international payment is sent, removing a key point of friction in cross-border transactions. The new Payment Pre-validation service is a core building block in SWIFT’s strategy to drive instant and frictionless transactions worldwide.

Most cross-border payments are processed without issue, but one of the leading causes for those that fail or lose time is incorrect beneficiary information – from misspelled names to transposed account numbers. And because they are detected late in the process, these issues can be among the most time-consuming and costly to resolve. SWIFT’s Payment Pre-validation service tackles this problem by allowing a sending bank to confirm account details, via an API, with the receiving bank from the very beginning of the process so that any data or account problems are identified right up front. This check is similar to what already occurs in some domestic markets except the SWIFT service will go much further — solving the issue for up to 11,000 institutions and 4 billion accounts in 200 countries.

SWIFT developed the Payment Pre-validation service in close cooperation with financial institutions, and a number of major global banks have already signalled their commitment to the service. SWIFT plans to continue innovating the service, and over the coming months will offer additional checks based on reference data encompassing millions of transactions to further predict, at the point of initiation, when a transaction may potentially run into friction points along the way.

Over the next two years and beyond, SWIFT is transforming its platform to enable instant and frictionless payments anywhere in the world, aiming to significantly improve end-to-end efficiency, reduce total costs, and to create services that equip financial institutions to capture growth and create new, differentiated customer experiences. Payment Pre-validation is one of many such services to come that will support the first platform release in November 2022.

Stephen Gilderdale, Chief Product Officer, SWIFT said: “SWIFT’s strategy to enable fast and frictionless payments takes a major step forward with the launch of this service. Payment Pre-validation will bring end-to-end efficiency, enabling our customers to provide better, faster and new services to their own end clients.”

Thomas Halpin, Global Head of Payments Product Management, HSBC, said: “Pre-validation is an important step in helping corporates to make simpler, faster and more secure cross-border payments. This feature will ensure customers can send payments in confidence, and the increased security brings benefits not just for customers but for the entire payments community.”

George Doolittle, Head of Global Payment Services, Corporate and Investment Banking Group, Wells Fargo, said: “Wells Fargo is pleased to be an early participant in SWIFT’s pre-validation solution as we continually seek ways to improve the global payment services that we bring to our clients. The transformative value of SWIFT’s Payment Pre-validation service is the decrease in friction, resultant cost efficiency and improved client experience of understanding and correcting format issues before they result in a repair or inquiry at the beneficiary’s bank or creditor’s agent which can bring great benefits to our industry. This service addresses a key challenge in the cross border payment industry.”

About SWIFT

SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance.

Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world.

As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community’s access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. SWIFT also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern.

Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT’s international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.

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