Instant Credit Transfer: SWIFT Trails gpi Payments through TIPS Platform

The global interbank messaging network SWIFT starts an EU-wide cross-border instant payment trial on their gpi service through TIPS platform.

Goals: Expand cross-border instant payment coverage across Europe.
Partners: Banking institutions in France, Spain, Russia, Italy, Luxembourg and Germany, that already joined this test phase.
Among partakers: Natixis, BBVA, Santander, Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, Sberbank and Banque Internationale à Luxembourg.
In line with this partnership, partaking banks will be in charge of ensuring cross-border payments, and settle transactions through TIPS. The point is to instantly credit the amounts to the ultimate beneficiary banks across Europe, even if the institution isn’t taking part in SWIFT’s gpi system.
Payments will only require a few seconds to process based on:
- A real time, 24//7 payment platform
- Longer credit windows enabled by the continuous availability of central bank money settlement through TIPS
The results for this trial should be presented at SIBOS next September, in London.

Resounding success. Since its launch in 2017, SWIFT gpi transformed the cross-border payment landscape. This service now enables more than 40% of SWIFT payments to be credited to their beneficiaries in less than five minutes.
New opportunity. Meeting banks’ evolving needs and expectations when it comes to payments is a challenge. TIPS bets on a partnership with SWIFT to stress its ability to include new use cases. SWIFT, for its part, further focuses on instant payments and relies on domestic payment systems to achieve this goal.
Strengthen their commitment. Through connecting their service to TIPS, SWIFT claims they intend to enable their customers to benefit from their current investments and provide their users with a high-added value service.

A year ago, SWIFT tested a similar system with the Australian domestic instant payment scheme NPP. In August 2018, they ran a successful trial for their cross-border near-instant transfer service based on gpi and the local network New Payments Platform. This initiative was conducted in partnership with China, Australia, Singapore and Thailand-based institutions.
SWIFT now aims to expand the scope of their initiatives to other real-time systems worldwide. They intend for their current monopoly on cross-border payments to last, even if several innovative alternatives are starting to emerge.

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