From Brexit to the Ukrainian war, the course of cross-border payments never seems to run smooth. Yet, these transactions are the lifeblood of international trade and economic growth worldwide. SWIFT has taken major steps in recent years towards its goal of fast and frictionless transactions. While SWIFT is reducing the complexity of international transactions, selecting the right SWIFT Service Bureau will reduce the complexity of working with SWIFT.
In 2020, the G20 set out its roadmap to deliver faster, cheaper, more inclusive and more transparent cross-border payment services. SWIFT can be considered the foundation stone upon which these services are built if this is to be achieved. And, it has made impressive strides in that direction. New capabilities such as SWIFT Go – that has transformed the speed and efficiency of low value payments – are indeed moving us closer to the goal of fast and frictionless payments.
The journey’s only just begun
Lets face facts: There’s still a long way to go. Cross-border payments often remain slow, complex and cumbersome. There are numerous friction points of which every bank and corporate organization is only too aware. According to The Banker, these can be broken down into four broad areas:
- Transaction processing compliance checks
- Local operating hours in the buyer and supplier’s territories
- Fragmented and incorrect data (often using a number of different data standards and formats)
- Technology limitations of parties involved in the transactions
SWIFT told The Banker that the organization was ‘on a mission to enable all banks within our community to deliver a fast, predictable and transparent payments service to their customers’. There is no doubt that a seamless end-to-end customer experience would be the ideal for every bank. But, before they can deliver it, something else must be seamless: the experience of working with SWIFT.
The advantage of a global SWIFT Service Bureau
Working with a global SWIFT Service Bureau – such as OpenText™ SWIFT Service Bureau provides quick and cost-effective access to the SWIFT network while removing much of the technical and administrative complexity of managing the SWIFT infrastructure. Integration complexities between banks and SWIFT are seamlessly eliminated with your relationship with OpenText. On top of integration services, OpenText is committed to enhancing the customer experience even further by receiving, debulking, and translating large files to multiple targets. Removing complexities around file formatting, acknowledgements, and settlements allows internal banking staff to reallocate time towards strategic value-added projects. Leaning on a SWIFT Service Bureau facilitates and speeds cross-border payments and improves the experience that banks can deliver to their customers.
Selecting the right Service Bureau is the first step towards enabling fast and frictionless payments through the following capabilities:
Seamless and secure connectivity
The bank can easily connect and efficiently interact with everyone in the value chain, including custodian banks, local market infrastructures and corporate customers.
End-to-end transaction visibility
A detailed and end-to-end view of all transactions and inquiries helps achieve shorter settlement cycles and expedites inquiry resolution.
Increase flexibility
The Bureau utilizes multiple SWIFTNet message standards to ensure specific organizational and counterparty needs are always met.
Improve straight through processing
By deploying SWIFT messaging standards and market practices developed collaboratively with the financial community, it’s easy to enable and streamline straight through processing of all financial transactions.
Integrate non-SWIFT connections
The Bureau helps establish and manage connections to organizations that are non-SWIFT-enabled through direct connections and APIs to broaden the scope of cross-border payments
Streamline onboarding
An end-to-end implementation process for new service bureaus dramatically reduces the time to connect and begin trading on the service.
We’re on the right path towards fast and frictionless payments with great work being done to enable rich data and common processing on the SWIFT platform. Working with the right SWIFT Service Bureau will mean that you’re always able to benefit from each new development.
To find out more about the benefits that OpenText SWIFT Service Bureau delivers for financial institutions and their customers, visit our web page
