SWIFT has announced a proof of concept (PoC) to trial gpi Link, a gateway to interlink e-commerce and trading platforms, with cross-border payment infrastructure SWIFT gpi.

The plans is to connect gpi members to multiple trade platforms, enabling payment initiation, end-to-end payment tracking, payer authentication and credit confirmation. The gateway will enable the continuous monitoring and control of payment flows and the subsequent movement of goods by those trade platforms.

To ensure global integration and interoperability, it will also support application programming interfaces (APIs).

The first stage of the PoC will work on R3’s blockchain platform, Corda, and aims to bring the benefits of gpi payments’ speed, ubiquity and certainty to trade by distributed ledger technology (DLT).

In the trial, corporates using the R3 platform will be able to authorise payments from their banks via gpi Link, with gpi payments settled by the corporates’ banks, and the resulting credit confirmations reported back to the trade platforms via gpi Link on completion.

Luc Meurant, SWIFT’s chief marketing officer, said: “While DLT-enabled trade is taking off, there is still little appetite for settlement in crypto-currencies and a pressing need for fast and safe settlement in fiat currencies.

“With gpi Link, banks will be able to provide rapid, transparent settlement services to e-commerce and trading platforms, opening up whole new ecosystems to the speed, security, ubiquity and transparency of gpi and enabling them to grow and prosper in the new digital economy,” he added.

SWIFT’s PoC will include bank and corporate participants. A prototype will be demonstrated at Sibos London in September.

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