E–invoicing

E-invoicing is increasingly a reality for companies in their business relationships and there are various levels of solutions available when a company decides to move into e-invoicing. These solutions can be sourced from e-invoice service providers which include non-banks and banks. As the customer demand and expectations are growing, service providers need to further expand their reach through interoperability. This has traditionally been managed through bilateral arrangements and point to point connections.

SWIFT has participated in industry discussion groups e.g. EU Commission Expert Group on e-invoicing and Euro Banking Association e-invoice working group. These groups and further discussions with stakeholders have helped us to identify existing pain points which in some cases have lowered the speed of development. These include for example the following issues:

• Number of bilateral arrangements is on the rise and thus becoming an issue
• There is no true messaging interoperability
• Market lacks common addressing model
• Banks in particular are looking for a e-invoice standard

For SWIFT, e-invoices are not just messages between sender and receiver. We also actively support the financial community (banks, corporates and vendors) with the development and implementation of trade financing solutions which all would benefit from the availability of e-invoice information. For example, using data from e-invoices, the buyer’s bank is better placed to offer trade financing to the suppliers in a cost efficient and effective manner. This approach should enable broader networking for business including new business opportunities which have to some extend been previously restricted. SWIFT is working together with the e-invoicing community through an e-invoice ad hoc group in order to facilitate growth and further development of e-invoicing. The ad hoc group is looking at what kinds of elements are needed to make interoperability easier and how SWIFT components can be used to make it happen. Technically the SWIFT network would be a clear enabler of connectivity between banks and service providers whilst they continue to manage their own communities of users across their proprietary systems.