Swift and online money transfer service Wise have announced a new collaboration to offer financial institutions and their customers more options for cross-border payments.

Under the agreement, financial institutions will be able to route Swift payment messages directly to Wise’s platform, enabling their customers to benefit from Wise’s speed and convenience, and Swift‘s reach and reliability.

Wise’s global payments network enables over 57% of customers’ cross-border payments to settle almost instantly, in under 20 seconds, and over 90% to settle in under an hour.

Financial institutions will only need to make one simple configuration change to start offering their customers Wise’s cross-border payment services.

The collaboration is also directly aligned with both G20 and UN Sustainable Development goals on the speed, transparency, cost and access of cross-border transactions.

Steve Naudé, Managing Director of Wise Platform said,

“By simultaneously leveraging existing payments architecture and optimising payouts using Wise’s global network, we are empowering banks to innovate effortlessly.

 

Our network, combined with Swift’s extensive reach and trackability, will make international payments more convenient, faster and lower cost for banks, without necessitating a major tech build.”

Thierry Chilosi, Chief Strategy Officer at Swift said,

“Our collaboration with Wise illustrates how Swift can be the bedrock from which the whole industry can innovate to improve cross-border payments and enhance the options available for customers across the globe.

 

Cooperation such as this will be vital in our collective efforts to achieve the G20 targets for cross-border payments and enable the seamless, efficient and secure movement of value around a fragmented world.”