Lloyds Banking Group has launched the world’s first go-live of SWIFT’s gpi Instant Connection, which enables consumers and businesses to track cross-border payments around the world.

SWIFT, which offers interbank services for financial institutions, said that its SWIFT gpi, which aims to set a new standard in global payments, will allow for sending and receiving of funds quickly and securely across the world with full transparency over where a payment is at any given moment in the transaction.

Lloyds Banking Group is the first to go live with the service and the UK is the first market where it is available.

Remittance payments from anywhere in the world destined for the UK routed through Lloyds can arrive in seconds with fee and foreign exchange transparency, robust security and full regulatory compliance, SWIFT stated.

The gpi Instant service works by connecting SWIFT gpi, the high-speed cross-border rails with real-time domestic infrastructure, in this case the UK’s Faster Payments rails.

It enables banks to use existing infrastructure to provide 24/7 visibility, with faster speeds, clarity on fees and predictability on when an end beneficiary’s account will be credited.

SWIFT said that adoption is expected to continue globally as demand for an instant cross-border experience rises.

The gpi Instant service is the culmination of several trials conducted by SWIFT with banks and payment infrastructures.

The go-live follows a successful pilot that took place earlier this year and involved banks including Lloyds, Barclays, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, DBS, Wells Fargo and BBVA.

It saw cross-border payments credited to accounts in the UK in seconds and built on the successful proof of concepts run by SWIFT and market infrastructures in Singapore, Australia and in Europe over the past two years.

In September 2020, SWIFT announced a new strategy to fundamentally transform payments and securities processing by retooling cross-border infrastructure to enable global financial institutions to deliver instant and frictionless end-to-end transactions.

At the heart of the new strategy is an enhanced platform which will orchestrate interactions between financial institutions and other participants to minimise friction.

Ed Thurman, managing director, head of global transaction banking at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “At Lloyds Bank we strive to continually evolve and create innovative solutions for our clients. The gpi Instant service is set to be a game changer in cross-border payments and we are very excited to be the first bank globally to offer the service here into the UK.

“We already offer our financial institution clients access to the Faster Payments Service for their crossborder flow into the UK, the launch of SWIFT gpi Instant will make those transactions visible on the SWIFT gpi Tracker. This partnership demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the market by working with SWIFT to launch gpi instant in the UK.”

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