Swift is working with industry partners on an initiative aimed at making cross-border transfers “as seamless” as domestic consumer payments.
In a statement, the financial messaging network said it is collaborating with financial institutions, payment service providers and technology vendors across four continents to bring domestic ‘pay-by-alias’ capabilities to international transactions.
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The project will extend the “front-end experience” of domestic payment schemes including Bizum in Spain, PayID from Australian Payments Plus (AP+), and Pix in Brazil into cross-border use cases.
In these domestic systems, consumers can often send money without sharing bank account details. Payments are initiated using proxy identifiers such as mobile phone numbers, email addresses and virtual payment addresses.
Swift said it is developing a similar user experience for international payments. Under the approach, aliases stored in domestic systems can be securely matched to support cross-border transactions over Swift.
The company described the work as the next phase of Swift’s consumer payments scheme. Swift launched its consumer payments framework in June and said it currently involves more than 100 banks.
Swift’s Payments Platform managing director Juan Martinez said: “We’re on a mission to make sending money abroad as simple as sending it at home. Together with our community, we have already transformed how quickly and predictably international payments move.
“Now we’re going further- innovating with our community to remove complexity at the very first click, so people can send money abroad with greater confidence.”
Participating organisations include Australian Payments Plus (AP+), Banco de Crédito del Perú, Banorte, BBVA, Bizum, Bradesco, Caixabank, Citizens Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, DBS and IDFC FIRST Bank. Ouribank, TerraPay and Veritran are also involved.
BBVA International Solutions global head Raouf Soussi said: “Our ambition is simple: international payments should feel as easy and intuitive as domestic payments. Achieving that requires the industry to work together, connecting infrastructures and removing complexity for customers.
“We are pleased to participate in Swift’s initiative and contribute to exploring new ways of making cross-border payments simpler, faster and more accessible.”
