Building from strong foundations

Building on strong progress to raise the bar 

Cross-border payments have evolved significantly in recent years, with major progress seen across the Swift network. Today, most payments reach beneficiary banks within minutes, providing a strong foundation for further improvement.

As customer expectations continue to rise, the opportunity now is to go further: delivering an end-to-end experience that is as transparent, predictable and fast as domestic payments - consistently and at a global scale.

How the Swift payments scheme addresses this 

The Swift payments scheme is a market-wide framework, with harmonised rules designed to improve the end-to-end cross-border payment experience on Swift’s network. 

It builds on the strong progress already made at the interbank leg — where today, most payments reach beneficiary banks within minutes - and focuses on improving consistency in the first stage and the last mile, where customer experience is most visible. 

By working in partnership with financial institutions globally, the scheme supports: 

• Clear, upfront transparency on costs
• Full principal transfers to end customers, with no hidden fees
• Trackable, predictable payments
• A commitment to instant settlement where domestic infrastructure allows 

The result is a more consistent, reliable cross-border payments experience, aligned with customer expectations and global policy objectives, including the G20 targets.

Built on collaboration and designed to scale 

As a global, neutral cooperative connecting over 11,500 institutions across more than 200 countries and territories, Swift is uniquely placed to bring the industry together and drive change at scale.

The Swift payments scheme reflects this role: a shared framework developed with the community, designed to raise standards across the network and deliver better outcomes for banks and their customers. 

What to take away from this episode 

• The Swift payments scheme is about raising the global baseline for cross-border payments through harmonised, market-wide rules
• It focuses on improving the end-to-end customer experience, especially transparency, predictability and speed
• It builds on what already works today, while helping the industry meet rising expectations and global targets