Swift says sign-ups for its cross-border payments service have tripled since its 2021 launch.
Swift Go, “which brings speed, transparency, and certainty” to payments of less than $10,000, is now used by more than 500 banks in upwards of 120 countries, the global financial messaging system said in a Tuesday (Nov. 29) press release.
As PYMNTS has reported, the service was designed to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) move funds across borders. The service targets SMBs and individual person-to-person senders, as these are more likely to be hit by unexpected fees and lack the power of larger companies to negotiate a bargain on cross-border payment fees.
Swift reported the milestone as part of a progress report as it tries to reach the G20’s goal of improving “speed, cost, transparency, choice, and access” in cross-border payments.
To that end, Swift says nearly half of its transactions reach their beneficiaries within five minutes, while two-thirds get to their destination within an hour. This puts the service on the path to hitting the G20 target of 75% of transactions settling within 60 minutes.
In addition, Swift says its payment pre-validation service, designed to spot errors before payments are sent, now covers “70% of beneficiary accounts in major markets.”
Last month, Swift announced it had conducted a test with a number of central banks that demonstrates that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and tokenized assets can “move seamlessly on existing financial infrastructure.”
As we reported in October, Swift says its solution “can provide CBDC network operators at central banks with simple enablement and integration of domestic CBDC networks into cross-border payments.”
The group’s latest news comes as SMBs are increasingly turning to cross-border payments tech, as PYMNTS has reported. Our research found that close to two-thirds of executives at financial institutions say their cross-border payment solutions are effective in addressing the pain points facing SMBs, which leaves 37% who have solutions that are less than effective.
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