Payments messaging company SWIFT is gearing up to close its Trade Services Utility (TSU), a workflow engine aimed at facilitating value-added supply chain services. Reports in Global Trade Review (GTR) on Monday (April 8) said SWIFT will switch off its TSU in December 2020.
“TSU has been a very niche success, and important for banks and corporates using it. However, its adoption has been limited, and as a cooperative, we have to focus on solutions with wider adoption and application,” SWIFT Global Head of Corporates and Trade Marc Delbaere told the publication.
TSU was launched by SWIFT in 2007 to promote the digitization of trade and supply chain processes, including liquidity management, cash flow forecasting and trade finance programs. The solution automated the comparison of trade data between trading partners’ banks, and highlighted any inconsistencies in trade documents like invoices, transport documentation and purchase orders.
GTR noted that the 2013 launch of SWIFT’s Bank Payment Obligation (BPO), an ISO 20022 payment instruction, accelerated the adoption of TSU, with BPO using the TSU to match data between buyers and suppliers, and automatically initiate payments. However, reports said, the solution didn’t work as seamlessly as intended.
The publication reported last November that SWIFT was in discussions about the future of TSU.
“TSU is, at its core, a matching platform,” said Delbaere in an interview at the time. “It is the only matching engine run by SWIFT, and it is currently only used in trade finance, and only for the BPO. So, we believe that looking at partners with further adjacencies can only strengthen its value proposition.”
Unnamed sources told GTR in November that SWIFT was exploring a partnership with essDOCS, but the latest developments have suggested that SWIFT has shifted gears and decided to shutter the service altogether.
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