Initial rollout across key remittance corridors targets cost certainty and full-value delivery
A small business in London pays a supplier in India. The transaction leaves instantly, but uncertainty follows. What fees will be applied along the way? How much will arrive? And when?
For decades, these questions have defined the cross-border payments experience – Swift now wants to remove them.
The Brussels-based network has confirmed that a new framework designed to bring “new levels of affordability and predictability” to cross-border retail payments will begin going live by the end of June, with an initial group of more than 25 banks participating.
The scheme will first cover a set of major payment corridors, including routes to Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Germany, India, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, the UK and the US. Several of these markets, including Bangladesh, China, Germany, Pakistan and India, rank among the world’s largest recipients of remittances.
Under the new model, payments sent across these corridors will include upfront certainty on costs, full-value delivery to the recipient, and end-to-end traceability. Swift said transactions will also be processed at the fastest available speeds, including instant settlement where possible.
The framework builds on progress already made within the network. Swift noted 75% of its payments currently reach destination banks within 10 minutes or less, exceeding G20 targets on speed. However, the organisation acknowledged that “more needs to be done in the front-end and final domestic leg” to improve the overall experience.
The new rules are intended to address those gaps.
Nasir Ahmed, Head of Payments Scheme at Swift, said the initiative reflects a broader push by the financial community to improve the usability of cross-border payments.
“The financial community has made strong collective progress to improve the speed and transparency of cross-border payments, but there is room to go further,” he said.
Ahmed added that the aim is to ensure users can transact “safe in the knowledge that the full value will arrive with the recipient and that the fees will be affordable and fixed from the start.”
Cross border retail payments need improvement
The emphasis on predictability marks a shift in how cross-border infrastructure is being positioned. While speed improvements have been widely documented, variability in costs and outcomes has remained a persistent issue, particularly for retail payments and remittances.
Swift’s framework attempts to standardise this experience through a set of shared rules adopted by participating banks. More than 50 institutions have already demonstrated support, including major global players such as HSBC, Citi, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan, alongside regional and domestic banks across key markets.
However, individual adoption timelines will vary, with just over 25 banks expected to go live in the first phase.
The initiative was first outlined in September 2025, when Swift began working with a voluntary coalition of early adopters to develop the framework in line with the G20’s roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments.
That roadmap has placed increasing emphasis not just on speed, but also on cost, transparency and accessibility. Swift’s latest move appears closely aligned with those objectives, particularly in addressing what it describes as “front-end” and “last mile” frictions.
Bank participants have framed the initiative as a step towards aligning cross-border payments more closely with domestic expectations.
Hagan Shakespeare, Head of Global Clearing Services at ANZ, said the framework will enable “more predictable, transparent and increasingly frictionless cross-border transactions” across the initial corridors.
Similarly, Kim Verhaaf, Managing Director for Payments at Lloyds Bank, pointed to the role of transparency and speed in supporting economic activity, describing cross-border payments as “a critical enabler of trade, growth and everyday economic activity for businesses and consumers alike.”
For banks operating in remittance-heavy markets, the implications are more immediate. Joel De Vera, SVP at Bank of the Philippine Islands, said the framework could “redefine how money moves,” particularly for overseas workers sending funds home.
Part of a broader plan
Beyond the payments scheme itself, Swift also positioned the initiative within a broader infrastructure strategy.
The framework forms one part of what it described as a “parallel track innovation strategy” aimed at enabling faster and more flexible cross-border transactions across different types of value. Alongside the payments scheme, Swift is developing a blockchain-based shared ledger to support the on-chain movement of regulated, tokenised assets.
This ledger is intended to enable 24/7, real-time cross-border transactions while leveraging Swift’s existing network of more than 11,500 financial institutions across over 200 countries and territories.
Taken together, the two strands suggest a dual approach: improving the performance of existing account-to-account rails while building new infrastructure for emerging forms of digital value
