Bank of China, Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered confirmed their preparations for the platform as the co-operative detailed a roadmap it will roll out over the next 18 months.

New features - including upfront validation of beneficiary details, central management of exceptions, extension of Swift’s high-speed gpi rails to lower-value payments and new rich data services based on the ISO 20022 standard - will serve as the building blocks of the enhanced platform.

Manish Kohli, global head of payments and receivables, treasury and trade solutions, Citi says: “Swift’s platform strategy helps provide the industry with a clear path towards a ubiquitous instant and frictionless cross-border payments experience, which, coupled with Swift’s established global reach and scale, represents a credible path to success.”

Set for adoption by at least 90% of the world's public and private high-value networks over the next four years, the new ISO 20022 messaging standard, in combination with APIs, can address multiple pain points hobbling cross-border payment flows, including sanctions checking, AML & identity, invoice reconciliation, message translation, and end user transparency of speed and fees.

Swift was originally expected to roll out full support for ISO 20022 in November this year, but caused consternation in the industry when it kicked the can down the road to end-2022, citing technical issues with industry adoption. With completion by the Eurosystem of the T2-T2S consolidation project, which is based around the use of the new messaging standard, Swift will be expected to offer banks free translation software for cross border payments which have to be mapped from ISO 20022 to MT until the full cutover of the new platform is complete.

With preparations for new services finally underway, international banks see significant potential in the platform capabilities across both payments and securities processing.

Ole Matthiessen, managing director, global head of cash management, Deutsche Bank says: “Swift’s platform will be a powerful catalyst for innovation for the financial services industry. We can already see how the platform will allow our industry to seamlessly integrate new features that will reduce costs and provide for faster, frictionless payments. It perfectly complements and integrates with Deutsche Bank’s own planned products and services to support future industry demand.”