Connecting the global financial community: Our year in review

2024 has been another transformative year for our community. Together, we’ve continued to make the experience of sending money across borders better and faster - while strengthening the foundations for the future.

This year, we worked closely with our community to shape the next phase of our strategy, which at its core, aims to ensure we maintain the highest standards for operational excellence and enable financial institutions to provide a best-in-class cross-border transaction service to their customers.

We’ve advanced innovation across multiple fronts, enhancing the future of interoperability while also leveraging AI to help our community better fight fraud. Here’s a look at some of our community’s key achievements and the positive impact they’re having.

Advancing the G20’s goals for cross-border payments

We made great strides towards improving payment speed, transparency, and efficiency. Data from our network showed that 90% of international payments sent over Swift now reach the beneficiary bank in under an hour.

This is a significant milestone that’s already well ahead of the speed targets set by the G20 to achieve one-hour end-to-end processing for 75% of cross-border payments by 2027.  

However, our data also revealed that more work is needed in the 'last mile' beneficiary leg in receiving countries to ensure funds reach end-customers’ accounts in under an hour as well. As we look ahead, we’ll continue to work with the financial community to identify and address these remaining frictions in support of the G20 objectives.

Uplifting the end-customer experience

Over the past few years, we’ve worked with our community to create capabilities that power best-in-class services at every stage of the transaction lifecycle. Services like Swift GPI, Swift Go and Payment Pre-Validation have significantly increased speed, transparency and predictability. And now, as part of our work to support the G20 goals, we’re working with our community to bring the benefits directly to their end customers.

In 2024 we kicked off a pilot programme to enable financial institutions to embed our advanced capabilities directly into their online and mobile customer channels.  The pilot group brought together 26 financial institutions and six third-party application providers. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive: 95% of participants agreed that these solutions could enhance end-customer satisfaction.

As we move into 2025, we’ll keep working with our community to improve experiences for end customers, while maintaining a strong, integrated financial ecosystem.

Counting down to ISO 20022

The adoption of ISO 20022 continues to grow, bringing richer, more structured data that enhances compliance, improves customer experience, and allows for new value-added services.

Over one million ISO 20022 messages are now exchanged daily, across 150 sending and 220 receiving countries, reflecting a truly global shift. 2024 marked a major milestone with significant progress in corporate-to-bank payment flows, ensuring the benefits of ISO 20022 adoption extend across the payments ecosystem.

As the November 2025 deadline for the end of MT/ISO 20022 coexistence approaches, we will continue to support the community in making the most of the new standard as an enabler of future interoperability.

Achieving global interoperability

Interoperability remains a cornerstone of our strategy, ensuring diverse payment systems and technologies work seamlessly together. We’re collaborating with the global community to interlink instant payment systems (IPS) and harmonise messaging standards to reduce fragmentation.

As Verification of Payee checks are implemented domestically in the EU and elsewhere, we’re also supporting greater interoperability across these systems, helping to reduce fraud risks while improving efficiency. These efforts are key to enabling seamless cross-border transactions across different platforms, geographies, and currencies, aligning with our mission to deliver a truly interconnected ecosystem.

Innovating for the future

As the world evolves, so do we. Innovation is at the heart of our mission, and in 2024, we made bold advancements in digital assets and currencies.

In March 2024, we completed a second phase of CBDC sandbox testing involving 38 central and commercial banks, facilitating over 750 transactions across use cases like trade, securities, and foreign exchange.

Looking ahead, live trials of digital assets and currencies will begin on Swift in 2025. These will allow institutions to transact interchangeably across both existing and emerging asset and currency types, using their current Swift connection.

Harnessing the power of AI and fighting fraud

Across all financial services globally, fraud is estimated to have cost the industry USD 485 billion in 2023 alone. To help solve this problem, we’re harnessing AI to give financial institutions stronger and more accurate insights into potentially fraudulent activity.

Starting in January 2025, we’re rolling out an AI-powered fraud detection capability that aims to help the financial industry tackle increasingly sophisticated forms of financial crime.

This enhancement builds on our existing Payment Controls Service (PCS) and follows a successful pilot with financial institutions across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

Streamlining securities settlement

In a year that saw T+1 settlement go live in North America, we’re encouraged by the momentum behind Swift Securities View to increase transparency and reduce settlement fails. Over 170 firms have signed up since its launch in January 2023, with 78 actively sending messages with a Unique Transaction Identifier (UTI).

This progress means that 41% of securities settlement messages on Swift are now covered by Swift Securities View, improving clarity and reducing operational costs and risks. Working with eight trade settlement platforms and application providers to enable the UTI, we’re continuing to ensure that securities markets are well-equipped for faster, more transparent settlements.

Driving collaboration and creating connections

Sibos 2024 brought the global financial community together for the first time in Beijing, attracting over 10,000 delegates from 160+ different countries.

Across four days of vibrant discussions, thought leadership, and networking, Sibos demonstrated the strength of our community and our shared commitment to shaping the future of finance.

If you missed any of the action, a selection of Swift at Sibos sessions is available on-demand, offering access to key insights from industry experts.

Looking ahead

As we reflect on 2024, we celebrate the progress we’ve made together. From transforming payments and securities to tackling fraud and advancing innovation, our achievements are a testament to the power of collaboration.

In 2025, we’ll keep building on these successes, driving the adoption of ISO 20022, enhancing global interoperability, and delivering groundbreaking solutions that enable our community to thrive in a rapidly changing financial landscape.

Together, we’re creating a future where transactions are faster, smarter, and more secure benefitting everyone, everywhere.

None of this would have been possible without our global community. Your support helps drive progress, spark new innovation, and shapes everything we do. As we head into 2025, we want to say thank you for being a vital part of this journey. We’re excited about all the opportunities ahead and look forward to continuing to build the future together.