Financial telecommunication entity SWIFT has announced that a group of European banks are set to trial gpi cross-border payments using the TARGET Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS) platform.

The European Central Bank (ECB) along with SWIFT expect enabling gpi cross-border payments will further extend the reach of instant cross-border payments into the European market.

The financial institutions participating in the trial include: Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Natixis, Santander and UniCredit.

Mehdi Manaa, deputy director general, market infrastructures and payments, European Central Bank, explained: “The support of the ECB to this initiative is in line with our strategic objective of ensuring that our TARGET Services keep pace with the evolving needs and requests of banks in the payment landscape.

“By facilitating gpi, TIPS proves its flexibility to cater for additional use cases. This shows how the 24/7 availability of central bank money provided by TIPS can open new possibilities for the market.”

Since its initiation in 2017, SWIFT said its gpi solution has ensured 40% of its payments are credited to end beneficiaries within the timescale of five minutes.

In 2018 the financial network undertook a similar pilot with Australia’s domestic instant payment system, the New Payments Platform, in collaboration with a group of banks from Australia, China, Singapore and Thailand.

SWIFT is now planning to work with its community more to further extend the scope to other real-time systems around the world.

Alain Raes, chief executive EMEA and Asia Pacific, SWIFT, described the trial as a “critical step” in extending its reach and accessibility of instant cross-border payments.

He said: “By linking SWIFT gpi and TIPS, our customers will be able to leverage their existing investments to deliver a superior service to their clients.

“The support we have from major European banks demonstrates their commitment to partnering with SWIFT to deliver a fast, secure and seamless cross-border real-time payment service that scales globally. We look forward to sharing the results of the pilot at Sibos in London in September.”