Wise and Swift reveal service to improve international payments

This will allow financial institutions to route Swift payment messages directly to Wise and through its latest Correspondent Services solution

Swift and Wise today announced a collaboration to increase cross-border payment options for financial institutions and their customers.  

The collaboration was announced in Toronto at the annual Sibos conference. It will enable payments via Swift to be completed over Wise Platform’s infrastructure.  

This will allow financial institutions to route Swift payment messages directly to Wise, through its latest Correspondent Services solution.  

And enable their customers to benefit from the speed of Wise, and the breadth of Swift, without needing to implement any major changes to their systems.  

The service will also bring down the cost of transfers. In an email interview with FinTech Intel, Wise said where traditional correspondent networks require money to move through multiple providers who each take a cut, Wise Platform’s new solution enables it to be the single intermediary for international payments. Which instantly brings costs down for customers.

The Wise network settles more than 57% of customers’ cross-border payments instantly (which Wise defines as under 20 seconds), and over 90% in under an hour.  

The collaboration is the start of a broader relationship. And comes as increased innovation and fragmentation in the financial ecosystem is creating more ways for money to move, Wise said in a statement.  

It aligns with both the G20 and UN Sustainable Development goals on the speed, transparency, cost and access of cross-border transactions.  

Steve Naudé, managing director of Wise Platform, points out that banks face many challenges when it comes to enhancing their international payments. Such as embedding technology, which is incompatible with legacy infrastructure.  

He said: “By simultaneously leveraging existing payments architecture and optimising payouts using Wise’s global network, we are empowering banks to innovate effortlessly.  

“Our network, combined with Swift’s extensive reach and trackability, will make international payments more convenient, faster and lower cost for banks. Without necessitating a major tech build.”  

Thierry Chilosi, chief strategy officer at Swift, said: “Our collaboration with Wise illustrates how Swift can be the bedrock from which the whole industry can innovate to improve cross-border payments. And enhance the options available for customers across the globe. 

“Cooperation such as this, will be vital in our collective efforts to achieve the G20 targets for cross-border payments and enable the seamless, efficient and secure movement of value around a fragmented world.” 

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Josh Poyser Josh Poyser is an editor at FinTech Intel. He has written about fintech for several years and appeared at FinTech Connect 2023 on the 'Unlocking Success: The Art of Fintech PR' panel.