Bank-to-bank payment messaging network Swift is working to facilitate interoperability of Verifcation of Payee schemes across Europe as new research shows that 83% of SMEs across France, Germany, Italy and Spain rank upfront beneficiary checks as important to them in trading across borders.
The research among more than 2000 business decision makers finds that SMEs in the European Union feel positive about the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation, with many expecting it to save them money, improve their cashflow, and increase their competitiveness.
Almost nine in ten expect to be impacted by the change, while 44% of respondents say the regulation will save their business money, and 27% think it will help improve their cashflow. One in five expect to be more competitive.
The regulation mandates Verification of Payee (VoP) for cross-border payments within the Single European Payment Area by October 2025. Many countries use VoP at a domestic level, but interoperability between these schemes is critical to its success on an international scale.
Swift is working to facilitate interoperability of VoP schemes through its Payment Pre-validation solution. This will ensure the secure transmission of standardised financial data - which is critical to the success of VoP as a friction-removing tool - and pave the way for its widespread use in cross-border payments, while enabling financial institutions to comply with the regulation at pace using their existing Swift connectivity.
CBI and SurePay are two VoP providers that have already expanded their reach across Europe and beyond through collaboration with Swift,.
The banking co-operative was recently enlisted by Australian Payments Plus (AP+) to build a confirmation of payee service running on the domestic National Payments Platform (NPP).
Marianne Demarchi, chief executive, Emea, at Swift, says: “The European regulation has the potential to be a landmark development for the cross-border payments industry, but financial institutions are under pressure to comply with the Verification of Payee element by the October 2025 deadline. Swift is ideally-placed at the heart of the industry to facilitate interoperability of VoP schemes, simplifying the compliance process for our community and giving users of cross-border payments peace of mind when sending money not just across borders within Europe, but also beyond.”