SWIFT takes on Ripple with successful instant cross-border trials between Asia and Europe

In a world where technology changes in a blink of an eye the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) is working hard to stay above the competition. The firms that have started giving SWIFT a run for its money is Ripple and other blockchain based technologies.

However, SWIFT is refusing to be rendered obsolete by ensuring it competes with blockchain cross-border service providers using Ripple’s payment systems. According to a press release on July 18, a successful trial of instant cross-border transfers has been carried out.

The announcement outline that instant transfers among 17 banks based in Australia, China, Canada, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Singapore, and Thailand had been completed with the fastest transaction taking just 13 seconds while the longest taking only 25 seconds.

The trials utilized SWIFT’s Global Payments Innovation (GPI) and Singapore’s domestic instant payments solution, FAST. According to SWIFT, the GPI instant system is expected to bring down the cost of transactions.

SWIFT’s head of banking Harry Newman stated:

“SWIFT envisages that cross-border payments will become as convenient as domestic transactions, and the successful testing across multiple corridors between Europe and North America to Asia Pacific confirms the important role that GPI Instant will play in making that bold vision a reality.”