Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and NatWest have become the first in the country to adopt a new Swift payment framework that enables more streamlined and transparent international money transfers.

The four banks are also among the first in the world to adopt the framework, which Swift said provides a unified approach to cross-border payments.

It added that its new framework allows cross border payments to be completed within minutes, with instantaneous transfers possible if the recipient’s bank supports it. It also offers transparent fee and exchange rate information prior to sending and allows the fund’s whereabouts to be tracked until arrival.

The new payments initiative will initially apply only UK customers receiving payments from Australia, China, India, and Turkey, with Australia also covered for outgoing transfers.

Sofie Petersen, Head of FIG Payments Products at Barclays, said: “Enabling near real-time settlement of cross-border payments through domestic payment schemes while preserving end-to-end transparency and traceability unlocks significant value for clients and the global financial institutions community.

“Barclays is proud to support the Swift scheme MVP [minimum viable product] for the UK corridor, leveraging our extensive experience in Faster Payments and GBP clearing to help advance the next generation of international payments.”

Member-owned cooperative Swift already underpins the operations of 11,500 financial organisations in more than 200 global markets. It has been working to achieve instant cross-border payments for over a decade and reached a milestone in 2021 when it launched an initiative to achieve it alongside 11 international banks.

Streamlined cross-border payments can be helpful to consumers as well as financial organisations. Families living overseas, for example, use international remittances to help cover the costs of living, housing, and education.

Migrants in the UK sent at least £9.3 billion in remittances back to home countries in 2023, according to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. India, Pakistan, and Nigeria are the top destinations for payments, the researchers added, noting that the reported figure is likely a “significant underestimate” of the full total.

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