- The initiative looks at how to connect national instant payment systems from different countries to make it easier for users to send money abroad without having to enter account numbers
CaixaBank is taking part in a study promoted by Swift to explore a simpler and more intuitive way to make international payments between individuals. The initiative is looking at the possibility that users can send money to family and friends in other countries using common identifiers, such as phone number or email address, instead of having to enter bank account details.
The project brings together financial institutions, payment service providers, technology companies and national peer-to-peer payment systems from Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas. The aim is to analyse how to take advantage of Swift's global connectivity to interconnect different domestic infrastructures and standardise this type of international operations.
CaixaBank's participation allows the study to incorporate the experience of the Spanish market, where solutions such as Bizum have contributed to extending immediate payments between individuals. The initiative also includes connection with equivalent systems in other markets, such as PayID in Australia, Pix in Brazil or UPI in India.
A simpler experience for customers
The test seeks to transfer to the international arena the ease of use currently offered by national instant payment systems. To this end, participating banks will explore how to use their connection to Swift to access infrastructure in other countries and channel payments using verified identifiers, such as mobile phone or email.
This approach could reduce the complexity of entering account numbers and other bank details when making an international transfer. At the same time, interconnection through the Swift network would prevent each system from having to develop bilateral connections with the rest of the participating infrastructures.
The initiative is part of the evolution that cross-border payments are experiencing. According to information provided by Swift, 75% of international payments currently reach the destination financial institution in less than ten minutes. The organization is also working on a specific framework for payments from individuals that seeks to provide greater transparency on costs and exchange rates, as well as reduce processing times.
One of the challenges identified is in the so-called "last mile", i.e. the domestic section between the arrival of the transaction at the bank and its payment to the recipient's account. According to Swift, this phase accounts for 80% of the total time of an international transaction.
With its participation, CaixaBank contributes to exploring new models of collaboration between institutions and payment infrastructures that allow progress towards simpler, faster and more transparent international transactions for customers.