ICICI Bank Rolls Out SWIFT gpi

SWIFT’s global payments initiative (gpi) service has a new bank on board.

Reports on Friday (April 6) in WebIndia123 said ICICI Bank is the first in India to join and roll out the global payments service. The gpi tool aims to heighten speed, transparency and efficiency of cross-border payments for financial institutions and their banks.

“International trade is the backbone of globalization and an imperative for India to grow,” said SWIFT Head of India and Subcontinents Kiran Shetty in a statement. “The biggest and most powerful economies look for a trusted trading partner, and we know that SWIFT gpi will bring about that ease of doing business that will be highly beneficial to all corporates in the country. The new standard for cross-border payments, SWIFT gpi brings a new world to corporate treasurers by bringing together real-time payments tracking, transparency of fees and same-day settlement.”

“Hundreds of thousands of gpi payments are already being sent daily over 220 international corridors and are being settled in minutes, and even seconds,” Shetty added.

“ICICI Bank is committed to consistently improve the transparency and overall client experience by driving innovation and leveraging technology,” said ICICI Bank Executive Director Vijau Chandok in another statement. “SWIFT gpi significantly enhances this experience in cross-border payments by delivering a totally new standard. We are very excited to be the first bank in India to offer SWIFT gpi, a new generation cross-border payments service to our clients.”

SWIFT gpi said it is also exploring the rollout of other services, including a Stop and Recall Payment service that enables financial institutions to stop a payment at any point in the process when fraud or errors occur.

Earlier this year, SWIFT announced the addition of several other banks to gpi, including Bank of China, Citi, ING Bank and Nordea Bank.

ICICI, along with Axis Bank, were the first banks in India to join SWIFT’s gpi.