BBVA Spearheads Experiment to Support Instant Payments in Britain

Friday, December 4th, 2020

BBVA took part in a pilot payment project to link the SWIFT gpi with Britain’s nationwide instant payment infrastructure.

The BBVA test, whose results were aired at the Sibos conference, was carried along with five other financial firms across the Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. Its primary goal was to test the integration of Swift gpi to FPS or The Faster Payments Scheme.

According to BBVA, SWIFT gpi is the newest global payment standard that offers a series of significant improvements to handling international payments, thereby streamlining the experience for consumers. The new feature enables quick and secure payments with total transparency on service charges while providing real-time information on transactions’ progress. It enhances operational efficiency regarding possible queries by users.

According to Raouf Soussi, Corporate Payment Strategist at BBVA, “integrating SWIFT into the Faster Payment platform will further boost customer experience, increasing the real-time processing of transactions in British pounds on top the advantages gpi already provides.”

The experiential effort proceeded as planned and showed the global potential to surpass time-zone restrictions that won’t interfere with transaction processing anymore. It further indicated that it is possible to integrate SWIFT gpi globally.

This test is similar to Sibo’s 2019 trial instigated to investigate the possibility of transferring funds to any country within seconds.

Last year tests showed that transfer times could significantly shorten in SWIFT gpi global transfers by connecting the network with the instant payment platforms in various countries.

In another announcement, SWIFT rolled out a new offering in early November to improve the payments ecosystem for micro and medium businesses and consumers who send low-value payments globally.

The company clarified that the program would allow users to make faster, user-friendly, and daily-priced payments internationally.

SWIFT is working with 20 banks to pioneer the service, which comes alongside SWIFT gpi, which has already sped up the nature of payments.

During the announcement, SWIFT mentioned that this new service goes in line with its current objectives.

To wrap Up

Offering great speed, security, and honesty, SWIFT gpi is sure a meaningful move in the payments ecosystem. A global integration into instant payment avenues can ease the flow of money among businesses and individuals worldwide.