Swift Launches Retail Cross-Border Payments Scheme in 11 Countries With Backing From 50+ Banks

Overview

• The new framework covers retail payments to Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Germany, India, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• More than 50 banks have joined the scheme, with an initial cohort of over 25 set to go live by the end of June 2026 and additional corridors to follow later in the year.
• Payments will offer certainty of cost, full‑value delivery, end‑to‑end traceability and instant settlement where domestic infrastructure supports real‑time rails.
• Swift reports that 75% of transactions already reach destination banks within one hour, with most remaining delays occurring in domestic legs that the scheme is designed to streamline in line with G20 goals.
• A parallel innovation track will add a shared ledger to support 24/7 movement of regulated tokenised value across Swift’s network of 11,500 institutions.