Swift wants to make cross-border payments feel more familiar by connecting domestic payment systems and improving interoperability between markets.
Swift has unveiled an initiative to enable pay-by-alias payments across borders, connecting domestic systems such as Bizum, PayID and Pix.
The project involves banks, payment service providers and technology companies across four continents, which includes Australian Payments Plus (AP+), BBVA, Banorte, Bizum, Bradesco, Citizens Bank and TerraPay.
Participants will test how domestic payment systems can link through the global Swift network by using identifiers stored in local databases to match international recipients.
Under the setup, users can send money to friends and family overseas without needing bank details, instead, using mobile numbers, email addresses and virtual payment addresses.
“We’re on a mission to make sending money abroad as simple as sending it at home,” said Juan Martinez, Managing Director of Swift’s Payments Platform.
“Now we’re going further—innovating with our community to remove complexity at the very first click, so people can send money abroad with greater confidence.”
Swift hasn’t specified a commercial launch date or initial payment corridors for the initiative.
Swift targets cross-border payment complexity
Domestic payments have become faster, simpler and more predictable in recent years, raising expectations of consumers and businesses for the same experience when sending money across borders.
Cross-border transactions, however, face additional hurdles as payments move between different banks, payment systems and jurisdictions, making them much more difficult to streamline.
Swift aims to carry some of the improvements made in localised domestic payments into the international market, using existing payment systems to simplify the customer experience.
AP+ CEO, Lynn Kraus, said Australians are already familiar with using PayID to send money via a mobile number or email address, without needing to remember bank account details.
“The opportunity to bring that same simplicity to cross-border payments is really exciting – and an important step towards making international payments feel increasingly like domestic ones,” Kraus said.
Bizum sees the project as a route to connect Spain’s domestic payment ecosystem with regions outside Europe.
Fernando Rodríguez, Deputy Managing Director of International Expansion at Bizum, said Swift’s proof of concept is progress towards connecting domestic payment solutions and enabling people to send and receive money between Spain and other continents.
He described the initiative as “a forward-looking step towards establishing the building blocks for global cross-border payments, in line with the G20 objectives”.
The G20’s cross-border payments roadmap seeks to make international transfers faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive, with targets set for improvements by the end of 2027.
Banorte emphasised the practical benefits for end users, with Ricardo Velazquez Rodriguez, Head of International Banking Division, stating that pay-by-alias “has the potential to transform cross-border payments by making transactions more intuitive and reducing complexity through easy-to-use identifiers”.
Building on Swift’s consumer payments scheme
The pay-by-alias initiative builds on Swift’s consumer payments framework, which launched in June and involves more than 100 banks.
The framework aims to improve how international retail payments move between institutions, with full-value delivery, greater predictability, and the fastest possible settlement.
Swift said 75% of payments on its network reach the receiving bank within 10 minutes, with many arriving within seconds.
Pay-by-alias targets the front end of the payment, making it easier for customers to identify recipients and initiate transfers.
The model is gaining momentum as payment providers look to connect existing instant-payment systems across borders. Earlier this month, the European Central Bank and Brazil’s central bank confirmed they were examining a link between TIPS and Pix, with a pilot potentially launching in 2028.
Efforts face many of the same challenges around interoperability, such as differences between payment systems, foreign exchange, compliance and data requirements.
Swift has also been exploring interoperability as part of its wider payments strategy. Speaking on the Payment Expert Podcast in May, Swift Managing Director and Head of Innovation, Nick Kerrigan, said the industry’s challenge is about connecting different payment infrastructures rather than a lack of new technology.
