Wednesday, 24 April 2024
SWIFT welcomes 27 Chinese banks to join its global payments innovation initiative
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) announced that 10 Chinese banks that have gone live on its global payments innovation initiative (gpi) since its launch in 2017, while 17 other Chinese banks are in the process of going live.
“By affirming their commitment to come onboard SWIFT gpi, the 27 Chinese banks that have signed up so far are sending a strong message to the rest of the world. The seamless connectivity, optimised financial products and services, and presence of ongoing community engagement and standards afforded by SWIFT and its gpi platform, are crucial in facilitating business between China and the rest of the world, and in doing so, set a new precedent for cross-border payments globally,” said Alain Raes, Chief Executive of EMEA and APAC, SWIFT.
The 10 Chinese banks which joined the initiative are: Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Minsheng Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China Construction Bank, Bank of Jiangsu, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Citic Bank, and China Zheshang Bank.
SWIFT is a global member-owned cooperative, headquartered in Belgium. Its messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in over 200 countries and territories. Its network which enables financial institutions around the world to securely transmit and receive standardised messages on financial transactions and hence, make cross-border payments.
In a recent feature interview, OpenGov learned that gpi provides an agreed common set of service outcomes, in terms of same day payments, end-to-end tracking, transparency and information. Banks can then layer their own innovations on top of this underlying service.
17 other Chinese banks have committed to SWIFT gpi in China and are in the process of going live. Together, these banks represent an estimated 86% of cross-border payment traffic conducted by Chinese banks in mainland China. In addition, a number of foreign banks with mainland presence are already on the SWIFT gpi network.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) currently covers over 60 countries and represents a third of the world’s trade. However, the discrepancy in standards and regulation across the BRI introduces a number of challenges, such as the absence of a unified communications framework and compliance issues. Thus, strengthening financial connectivity on the BRI routes is vital in ensuring its success in driving trade and stimulating economic growth across Asia.
SWIFT gpi is seen as a key player in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since it is designed to improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments.
The service offers Chinese banks faster transactions, and also improves the overall banking experience by creating predictable settlement times, transparent bank fees and FX rates, and clear statuses. This is turn leads to shorter supply cycles and faster shipping of goods on the customer end.
“The financial industry has an important role to play in realising the full potential of the Belt and Road Initiative, from building and maintaining effective infrastructures and processes to support capital flows; to working towards common standards and mitigating risks. At SWIFT, we are committed to working with Chinese banks to help shape the future of correspondent banking in China and beyond,” added Mr Raes.
As a next phase, SWIFT has created a work group comprised of banks from China, Australia, Singapore and Thailand to explore if these payments can be further sped up. The work group will define a set of business rules to look into how business process frictions can be overcome to facilitate faster or close to real-time payments. The working group will also identify domestic real-time payment systems that will carry the gpi information and unique end-to-end transaction references (UETRs), to allow the reach of the gpi service to extend into domestic payment system environments.
Re-dessiminated by The Asian Banker from Opengovasia.com
