Three companies, EBA CLEARING, SWIFT and The Clearing House (TCH) are working together to ease the cross-border payments process.
The new initiative, called Immediate Cross-Border Payments (IXB), is designed to synchronize settlement in one instant payment system with settlement in the other. Eleven banks have contributed to the design, with seven banks — Bank of America, BBVA Group, Citi, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, J.P. Morgan and PNC Bank — participating in the proof of concept.
“IXB demonstrates how the current ecosystem of cross-border payments may be enhanced and made suitable for new high-volume 24/7 business,” Erwin Kulk, head of Service Development and Management at EBA CLEARING, said. “In combination with an international request to pay, its potential applications would be limitless.”
IXB can help customers send cross-border payments in a simple and more transparent way. IXB uses ISO 20022 message standards related to speed, access, cost and transparency, as outlined by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and Financial Stability Board (FSB).
“Linking market infrastructures and financial institutions is a fundamental pillar of our strategy to enable instant and frictionless transactions around the world, and one of the key building blocks in the CPMI’s global roadmap on enhancing cross-border payments,” SWIFT Chief Strategy Officer David Watson said. “As a neutral party with worldwide reach that works with players from across the financial ecosystem, SWIFT is uniquely placed to support this partnership with EBA CLEARING and TCH and initiatives such as this worldwide.”