As the world moves towards a more global way of doing business, banks and financial institutions need the capability to move money around efficiently, transparently and in a cost effective manner and in doing so, ensuring that liquidity doesn’t get locked away. Cross-border payments however have historically been the opposite of this – with single payments costing upwards of $40 per transaction and taking five to seven days to settle. To meet the needs of today, payments need to be instant and much cheaper.
One way that banks are addressing the challenges associated with cross-border payments is by adopting the SWIFT gpi standard on the basis that they can make payments from one central location, rather than spreading liquidity among various correspondent banks across different countries. In this blog post for Finextra, Volante’s Domenico Scaffidi explores the benefits of SWIFT gpi as well as the pros and cons of the different paths to gpi adoption.
