Thursday, 25 April 2024
Spain embraces gpi for cross-border payments
Six Spanish banks, accounting for 85% of Spain’s cross-border payments, have adopted the SWIFT global payments innovation (SWIFT gpi), the new standard for cross-border payments. SWIFT gpi dramatically improves the customer experience in cross-border payments by increasing their speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking.
Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, Bankinter, BBVA, Caixabank and Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar, are all live on the service and are actively using SWIFT gpi for their cross-border payments.
SWIFT gpi is the most significant development in cross-border payments in the last 30 years. Hundreds of thousands of cross-border payments, totalling over $300bn, are sent every day using the new gpi standard. Payments are made quickly, typically within minutes, even seconds. SWIFT gpi drastically improves the customer experience, increasing speed, transparency and traceability, easing reconciliation and improving treasury forecasting and predictability.
Thanks to SWIFT gpi, corporates can grow their international business, improve supplier relationships, and achieve greater treasury efficiencies. For banks, SWIFT gpi delivers cost savings thanks to quicker investigations handling and a significantly reduced number of payment enquiries.
More than $40trn were transferred over SWIFT gpi in 2018 and rapid adoption saw the share of cross-border messages using gpi reach 56% by the end of the year, a year-on-year increase of 270%. More than 3,500 banks, accounting for 85% of SWIFT’s total payments traffic, have committed to adopting gpi, which has achieved the near total transformation of the cross-border payments landscape in just two years.
Juan Carlos Botrán, Head of SWIFT Iberia, said: “SWIFT gpi is the new norm for cross-border payments, delivering on the expectations of both the banks and their customers. We are very proud of the value that gpi delivers to the financial industry. We look forward to launching a series of new functionalities, including pre-validation and case resolution, and to announcing the results of our proof of concept work linking SWIFT gpi to e-commerce and instant payments platforms. All of this will help us improve both the end client experience and processing efficiency even further. On behalf of SWIFT, I would like to thank all gpi banks, and especially the Spanish gpi banks, for leading the way in making gpi the new standard.”
Miguel Prado, Head of Treasury, Endesa, said: “SWIFT gpi represents a major improvement in the international payments experience, which has traditionally been difficult to keep track of. The improvements to speed and traceability are significant, and, combined with the upcoming launch of the pre-validation service, deliver the required reliability and transparency to a process that was previously complex and lacking in transparency.”
Javier Urquidi, Treasury Manager, Grupo Iberdrola, said: “SWIFT gpi allows us to trace each individual cross-border payment and give confirmation that the transaction has been completed.”
Carlos Dalmau, Head of International Solutions at Banco Sabadell, said: “Thanks to SWIFT gpi, Banco Sabadell has incorporated added-value to the experience of its clients, increasing processing speed and bringing transparency and traceability to cross-border payments. All of this is highly appreciated by our clients. The internal feedback at Banco Sabadell has also been very positive. SWIFT gpi gives visibility and autonomy to the different business areas, which now have a clear view on the status of their payments. Banco Sabadell will keep expanding its cross-border payments offering as new SWIFT gpi services are launched, ensuring that we always deliver the best possible service to our clients.”
Stéphanie Rodriguez Aniorté, Head of Product – Global FI GTB, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, said: “Transparency, simplicity, innovation and commitment. Through these four pillars, SWIFT gpi will allow us to reinforce the relationships with our clients by offering them a continuously improving experience for their international transfers. At Santander Corporate & Investment Banking we continue to lead and support the adoption of this initiative, in the interest of offering a superior service to our customers.”
Jorge Andreo, Director de Proyectos Tecnológicos Internacionales en Bankinter, said: “At Bankinter we believe that international payments and collections are set to move to real time operations, as is already happening in the domestic payments landscape. This is why gpi is a priority for a foreign trade specialised institution like Bankinter.”
Mario Pardo, Global Head of Enterprise Solutions, BBVA, said: “At BBVA we have been pioneers in adopting this new standard in Spain, bringing transparency, speed and effectiveness to international payments. This helps us to achieve our goal of putting new era opportunities within the reach of all. Our clients can already access SWIFT gpi through Net Cash, to track and trace their payments and get information on fees.”
Lorena González, Head of International Business, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar, said: “For Grupo Cajamar adopting gpi has meant a significant improvement in the management of international payments, allowing us offer a better quality service to our clients. The transparency, speed and traceability that gpi brings into the payments ecosystem give answers to the questions that a client might ask after instructing a payment and demanding instant, easy and free of charge information – all of which has been unthinkable until now. The fact of giving information to clients in real time about where the funds are and when the beneficiary is credited, using traditional or digital channels, represents a significant step forward. We feel proud to be part of the “international payments revolution”, as we like to call it.”
Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
