- Industry initiative aims to extend the front-end experience of domestic payments systems like Bizum in Spain, PayID from AP+ in Australia and Pix in Brazil across borders
- Consumers will be able to send money to friends’ and family members’ accounts internationally using pay-by-alias identifiers like mobile phone numbers and email addresses
- The work builds on Swift’s consumer payments framework, which is elevating the standard for retail cross-border payments around the world
Swift and its global community are taking another step towards making international payments as seamless as domestic ones.
Today, millions of consumers use systems such as Bizum, PayID from AP+, and Pix to send money quickly and easily within their own markets without needing to know the recipient’s account details. Swift is bringing these systems together with banks, payment service providers and technology providers from four continents to pursue that same intuitive experience across borders. The approach will enable familiar identifiers that are already captured in domestic systems—like mobile phone numbers, email and virtual payment addresses—to be securely matched for international transactions over Swift.
This work marks the next step in the development of Swift’s consumer payments scheme. The framework, launched in June and now involving more than 100 banks, is already improving the end-to-end experience through full-value transfer, greater predictability and the fastest possible settlement at global scale. It builds on a broader transformation of the cross-border experience, with 75% of payments over Swift now reaching the receiving bank within 10 minutes and often seconds.
Juan Martinez, Managing Director of Swift’s Payments Platform, said: “We’re on a mission to make sending money abroad as simple as sending it at home. Together with our community, we have already transformed how quickly and predictably international payments move. Now we’re going further—innovating with our community to remove complexity at the very first click, so people can send money abroad with greater confidence.”
Participating organisations include:
Australian Payments Plus (AP+)
Banco de Crédito del Perú
Banorte
BBVA
Bizum
Bradesco
Caixabank
Citizens Bank
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
DBS
IDFC FIRST Bank
Ouribank
TerraPay
Veritran
Lynn Kraus, CEO of Australian Payments Plus (AP+): “Australians are already accustomed to using PayID to send money using a mobile number or email address, without needing to remember bank account details. The opportunity to bring that same simplicity to cross-border payments is really exciting – and an important step towards making international payments feel increasingly like domestic ones.”
Ricardo Velazquez Rodriguez, Head of International Banking Division at Banorte, said: “At Banorte, our priority is to make international payments simpler and more accessible for our clients. Pay by Alias has the potential to transform cross-border payments by making transactions more intuitive and reducing complexity through easy-to-use identifiers. We are proud to support this initiative and contribute to a more connected and accessible global payments ecosystem.”
Raouf Soussi, Global Head of International Solutions at BBVA, said: “Our ambition is simple: international payments should feel as easy and intuitive as domestic payments. Achieving that requires the industry to work together, connecting infrastructures and removing complexity for customers. We are pleased to participate in Swift’s initiative and contribute to exploring new ways of making cross-border payments simpler, faster and more accessible.”
Fernando Rodríguez, Deputy Managing Director of International Expansion at Bizum, said: “The success of account-to-account payment solutions in European and other national markets demonstrates the potential of this model to provide instant, simple, and secure person-to-person payments directly from bank accounts. Swift’s proof of concept is an important step towards connecting these solutions and enabling people to send and receive money easily between Spain and other continents. This milestone represents a forward-looking step towards establishing the building blocks for global cross-border payments, in line with the G20 objectives.”
Marcos Cavagnoli, Managing Director, Digital Products at Bradesco, said: “Bradesco is proud to support Swift’s pay by alias initiative, helping advance a future where cross-border payments are as simple, intuitive, and secure as domestic instant payments. By leveraging trusted proxy identifiers, we can deliver a better customer experience while accelerating global connectivity.”
Paul Margarites, EVP, Commercial Cash Product Solutions at Citizens Bank, said: “As business owners and operators increasingly manage money across multiple financial institutions and payment platforms, interoperability and ease of use have become more important than ever. Ongoing collaboration across the payments ecosystem helps advance ideas that can make payment experiences more intuitive, efficient and accessible.”
Bruno Foresti, Treasury Director, Ouribank, said: “Pay By Alias represents an important step in the evolution of cross-border payments, bringing the simplicity of domestic instant payment experiences to international transactions. By connecting Brazil’s Pix ecosystem to Swift’s global network, Ouribank is helping build a simpler, faster and more secure way of moving money across borders. This is what transforming borders into possibilities looks like.”
