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Swift, in collaboration with several international banks, has completed a successful pilot to process instant payments between different currency zones in a real environment.
The pilot was carried out by Iberpay and leading Spanish banks, including BBVA, Santander, and CaixaBank. It marked the first test of this groundbreaking service in Europe ahead of the official implementation of the new One-Leg-Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme by the European Payment Council (EPC) on November 28th.
During the pilot phase, numerous actual payments originating from banks in various currency zones such as National Australia Bank (Australia), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Itaú Unibanco (Brazil), and Lloyds Banking Group (UK) were processed, settled, and credited to the beneficiary customer’s account within seconds using the Swift GPI Instant service.
This pilot initiative achieved a world-first integration by combining the instant transfer platform of Spanish payment processor Iberpay, which operates 24/7 in real time, with Swift’s GPI tracker. This integration provided end-to-end visibility of payment status and enhanced transaction transparency.
BBVA highlighted some key advantages of this initiative, including the ability to process international payments 24/7 within seconds and the traceability of payments from start to finish. These advancements improve the customer’s user experience, enable new use cases, and foster the development of innovative services that compete with emerging players in the payment sector.
The successful completion of this pilot represents a significant step forward in facilitating faster and more efficient cross-border payments, enhancing the overall banking experience for customers, and promoting competition and innovation in the payment industry.
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