Six global Swiss companies have issued an open letter stating their support for the SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi) service and encouraging banks worldwide to use gpi in order to improve cross-border payments.

The firms, which include ABB, Nestle, Roche, SBB, Swiss Re and Wurth, claimed in the letter that SWIFT gpi addresses their ‘pain points’ around speed, transparency, and tracking of cross-border payments.

The corporates stated in their letter that SWIFT gpi addresses the ‘pain points’ they currently experience when making cross-border payments: corporate treasurers and finance managers have little visibility of what happens to their cross-border payment instructions, not knowing when payments have been credited or what fees have been deducted.

Equally, the companies do not know when or why a payment has been rejected and the investigation can be time-consuming and costly. It is also not always clear which party should initiate an investigation. This can cause problems with suppliers or end-customers as well as increasing financial risks resulting from payment delays or even fraudulent actions.

The group states that it “appreciates SWIFT gpi as it is targeting a long overdue, essential improvement of the customer needs for higher cross-border payment speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking.”

The letter continues: “With considerable industry support across the globe and an increasing number of leading transaction banks committed to the service, we are convinced that SWIFT gpi represents a major improvement in cross-border payments. The increasing number of banks going live on this service addresses the demands of corporate treasurers. Hence, banks cannot afford to not join the initiative and go live as soon as possible. Our expectation is that all of our cross-border payments will be end-to-end SWIFT gpi payments in the future.”

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