How Swift GPI is Shaping the Future of Cross-Border Payments

Cross-border payments are undergoing a fundamental shift. For decades, the Swift network has served as the backbone of international transactions. But as businesses demand faster settlements, greater transparency, and real-time visibility, traditional systems are evolving to meet new expectations.

Swift GPI is leading that change. Designed to modernise the international payments experience, GPI brings faster processing, end-to-end tracking, and improved cost transparency, all on top of the existing Swift network.

In this article, we explore how Swift GPI is reshaping global payments, its limitations, future trends, and how Thunes is extending its reach to more users, markets, and payment types.

Table of contents

What is Swift?

Swift (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) was established in 1973 as a global standard to replace Telex, a slower, less secure communication system that could no longer keep pace with the growing demands of global finance.

Today, Swift is a critical part of the financial system, but it’s important to understand its role. 

Swift provides the communication layer

Swift is not a bank; it doesn’t move money, and it doesn’t hold funds or settle transactions.

Instead, it acts as a secure messaging network that enables banks and financial institutions to communicate payment instructions and transfer requests across borders. Most international transactions rely on Swift to connect the parties involved, ensuring the correct information moves quickly and securely between institutions.

Correspondent banking provides the money movement layer

When two banks don’t have a direct relationship, they rely on correspondent banks to facilitate payments in foreign currencies. These correspondent banks are the ones that actually move the money, often routed through several intermediary banks.

How do they work together? 

When a bank wants to send funds to a foreign institution:

1. Swift is used to send the payment instruction from the sender bank to the correspondent bank (and ultimately the recipient’s bank).
   
2. Correspondent banks then execute the actual transaction based on that Swift message.

What is Swift GPI? 

Swift GPI (Swift Global Payments Innovation) is an upgrade to the traditional Swift network that went live in 2017. It aims to improve the speed, transparency, and traceability of cross-border payments.

With Swift GPI, payments that once took several days can now be settled within minutes or hours. More importantly, banks and businesses gain better visibility into a transaction’s status, from initiation to settlement, along with improved transparency on fees, exchange rates, and time taken at each stage.

It has delivered improvements to both sides of the payment ecosystem:

• For businesses: A better payment experience for both the sender and recipient, with fewer delays and less uncertainty.
• For banks: Provides the ability to deliver faster, more reliable international payment services through a trusted global network.

Its implementation has been very successful, demonstrated by its rapid adoption; over 4,450+ financial institutions use it, and the equivalent of over $530 billion in value is sent by banks every day via the GPI. 

Why Swift GPI Alone Isn’t Enough

Swift GPI upgrades the messaging experience, but it doesn’t remove the friction around onboarding, wallet compatibility, or payout diversity. Most businesses still need to build or manage multiple integrations to reach their customers globally. 

Thunes solves this by offering direct, API-based connectivity to Swift GPI infrastructure, removing the need for custom builds or legacy integrations.

The role of Swift GPI in cross-border payments

In many ways, Swift GPI has transformed the payment experience. 

It offers several benefits to businesses and platforms that make cross-border payments, including;

Faster payment settlement

Swift GPI significantly reduces the time required to complete international payments. Around 60% of GPI payments reach the beneficiary bank within 30 minutes, and nearly all are credited within 24 hours – far quicker than traditional cross-border transfers, which can take days or even weeks.

For businesses, faster payment speeds accelerate supplier payments, payroll, and settlement cycles, improving cash flow and reducing working capital pressure.

Greater transparency

Businesses need clarity when moving money across borders. Swift GPI offers upfront visibility into fees, FX rates, processing times and payment delivery, reducing uncertainty and manual reconciliation work.

It gives finance teams control over costs and helps avoid payment disputes or delays due to unclear deductions.

Secure transactions

Security is a core focus of Swift. GPI offers a suite of security features, including Stop and Recall, designed to help member institutions meet evolving regulatory requirements and manage risk effectively.

By strengthening the security of transactions between institutions, Swift GPI creates a safer environment for businesses and their end customers. 

Real-time payment tracking

With Swift GPI, payments have a unique end-to-end transaction reference (UETR) that allows real-time status tracking at every stage of the journey.

Payment tracking eliminates blind spots, enabling faster issue resolution and improving supplier confidence.

Flexible, scalable solutions

Swift GPI serves a broad range of financial institutions and corporate users. It supports different transaction types and adapts to regional infrastructure needs.

Its flexibility allows platforms and enterprises to scale global payment operations with consistency, regardless of the market or partner bank.

What are the limitations of Swift GPI?

While Swift GPI represents an improvement over traditional Swift messaging, especially in terms of speed and transparency, it still has limitations that businesses and financial institutions should be aware of.

Dependency on correspondent banking

While Swift GPI speeds up messaging and offers better tracking, it still operates on top of the existing correspondent banking network. That means institutions must rely on multiple intermediary banks to complete a cross-border payment, which can introduce complexity and variation in settlement times.

With Thunes, institutions don’t have to deal with multiple intermediaries; they can seamlessly route payments directly to banks, wallets, or cards, reducing complexity and cost via Thunes’ network.

Inconsistent settlement speeds

Though many GPI payments are settled within minutes or hours, the overall speed still depends on how quickly each bank in the chain processes the transaction. Delays can occur due to time zone differences, AML or KYC restrictions, compliance checks, or manual processing steps at one or more institutions.

Thunes optimises routing through its Direct Global Network, helping members achieve real-time or near-instant payments.

Fragmented visibility

Swift GPI has improved transparency with real-time tracking and unique end-to-end transaction references (UETR). However, this has its limitations, as not all banks offer full visibility to their customers. If even one bank in the payment chain doesn’t fully support GPI features, tracking can be incomplete or unclear.

Through Thunes, businesses get end-to-end payment tracking, regardless of the underlying bank partners or payment methods.

Cost variability

Swift GPI enhances transparency around transaction and processing fees, but the actual costs still depend on each bank’s policies. International payments involve multiple financial institutions, banks and intermediaries, and fees can be added at any stage for processing or currency conversion, making it difficult to predict the exact amount that the recipient will receive.

Businesses gain more control and predictability over cross-border payment costs by using our solution. By connecting directly to local clearing systems and wallets, Thunes reduces the number of intermediaries, cuts down markup fees, and ensures transparent, upfront pricing.

Participation requires Swift membership

To use Swift GPI, institutions must pay a fee to be a part of the Swift network. Smaller or regional players may face cost or infrastructure barriers that limit adoption, reducing the network effect and potential coverage in some markets.

Thunes acts as a Swift-connected intermediary. Members of the Thunes Direct Global Network can leverage Swift’s infrastructure, unlocking access to GPI functionality, speed, and global reach without requiring direct Swift integration.

The future of Swift GPI

Although Swift GPI has already made a transformative change to payments, there are two future innovations on their roadmap that will make cross-border payments even faster and more reliable. 

G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments

Swift has made progress toward meeting the G20’s cross-border payments targets, which aim for 75% of payments to be delivered within one hour and the remainder within one business day.

As of now, 90% of cross-border payments sent through Swift reach the recipient bank within an hour, surpassing that benchmark. This performance holds true for all but two of the top 40 receiving countries on the Swift network.

However, reaching the recipient bank isn’t the same as reaching the end customer. Due to local processing delays and regulatory checks, only 43% of payments are credited to the final account within an hour. Domestic factors continue to be a barrier to achieving full end-to-end speed.

Swift is meeting the needs of payments, with some notable innovations including;

1. Swift Go extends real-time tracking and fee transparency to small businesses and retail customers, making cross-border payments clearer and more predictable.
2. Swift Securities View brings similar visibility to securities transactions, helping institutions avoid delays and reduce the risk of failed settlements.
3. Interoperability is being advanced through the adoption of ISO 20022, a move fully supported by Swift GPI.

ISO 20022

While Swift GPI has significantly improved the speed and transparency of international payments, the global migration to ISO 20022 is set to take things further.

Scheduled for completion by November 2025, this new messaging standard enables the transmission of richer and more structured data across payment networks. The aim is to improve the quality of financial information transmitted, which will then enhance straight-through processing, reduce manual errors, and streamline cross-border transactions.

For businesses and financial institutions, it means:

• Faster, more accurate payments
• Real-time data visibility
• Improved FX risk management and liquidity planning

By standardising how payment data is shared, ISO 20022 allows Swift GPI to support 24/7 processing, making real-time global payments more accessible and reliable.

How Thunes Extends the Value of Swift GPI with Pay-to-Wallet

Swift acts as a messaging layer that allows businesses and platforms to process transactions moving between bank accounts. 

However, much of the world is either unbanked or embracing new payment technologies such as mobile or digital wallets. Approximately 8 billion people use a collective 4.8 billion digital wallets worldwide, and the Swift network is becoming a barrier to reaching these potential customers and clients. 

Not anymore.

Thunes is extending the power of Swift through Pay-to-Wallets, enabling Swift members to tap into our Direct Global Network and send payment messages that are routed directly to mobile wallets without any additional technical integration.

Thunes also supports Pay-to-Bank, providing extended coverage to B2B, B2C, and C2B (not just C2C) Pay-to-Wallet. 

The key benefit of this all-encompassing integration includes:

• Faster go-to-market: Greater inclusivity and faster go-to-market to pay-to-wallets for Swift members
• No extra integration is required: Swift integration is sufficient, which means no additional technical investment.
• Transparent: End-to-end visibility on payment reference, status and cost.
• Instant payments: 95% of wallets receive funds in real time.
• Better coverage: Gain access to +3 billion mobile wallets, +110 mobile wallet brands and +50 countries supported. Unlike our competition, Thunes also covers China.

Through their existing Swift connectivity, Swift members can use Thunes to deliver fast, seamless cross-border transactions and increase financial inclusion in markets where mobile wallets are the preferred payment method.

Ready to elevate your payment solutions? Connect to Thunes, the Smart Superhighway to move money around the world.