As Swift’s rapid cross-border platform continues its rollout, Citi has announced that it is the first bank to connect the instant payment capabilities across multiple markets.
Citi has enabled real-time payments through the Swift framework in Australian dollars, British pounds and Indian rupees, the New York-based bank confirmed in a 29th September announcement coinciding with the Sibos 2026 conference in Miami.
Citi clients can now access various domestic payment networks via Swift connections without opening local bank accounts.
Along with related partnerships, the Citi-Swift milestone is an enhancement supporting “our clients being able to accept payments and create interoperability [and] helping our clients operate in a digital world, 24/7, always on, in real-time,” said Debopama Sen, Head of Payments at Citi’s Services business.
The breakthroughs will significantly lubricate the pathways for “cross-border payments, whether it’s through the Swift ledger, the Swift scheme or through Citi’s own proprietary capabilities,” Sen adds.
Citi specifies that the initial approvals have been reached covering “AUD via NPP (New Payments Platform), GBP via FPS (Faster Payment System), and INR via IMPS (Immediate Payment Service).” US dollar clearing capabilities are also expanding for global transfers, the bank confirms.
Collaboration enables growth
Based in Belgium, Swift is a global member-owned cooperative specialising in global financial messaging. It boasts 12,500 connected institutions in 220 countries, facilitating transactions involving fiat and digital currencies.
Leigh Amaro, Chief Executive of the Americas at Swift, emphasises that the retail payments framework is growing, with ever-greater visibility into cost and speedy- delivery expectations, thanks to industry collaborations.
“There continues to be strong momentum behind our payments scheme, with more than 100 financial institutions now live or set to be live by the end of the year,” Amaro commented on 23rd October.
“The focus for us is on helping our community scale its reach, and in the process tackling the friction that impacts the last mile, so that more customers can benefit from faster, more transparent and predictable cross-border payments.”
Oracle enables tokenised deposits
In a separate announcement, Oracle confirmed that it is integrating with Swift’s blockchain ledger, enhancing the ability of financial institutions to participate in the tokenised deposits infrastructure.
Financial institutions will be able to manage “traditional and digital asset payment flows through a unified operating model, helping deliver more seamless, always-on payment experiences to clients,” the Austin, Texas-based software giant stated at the Sibos show in Miami.
“Our integration with Swift’s ledger helps institutions bring tokenised deposits into cross-bank payment flows and manage traditional and tokenised payments through a unified operating model,” said Jamie Bullard, Vice President, Application Software Engineering, Payments and Financial Crime Management at Oracle Financial Services.
“This can help banks innovate faster and meet customers’ rising expectations for transparent, always-on payment services while supporting governance and compliance efforts.”
Structured address migration extended
Earlier, Swift officials confirmed that they have accepted community requests to delay structured address migration for ISO 20022 payment messages. Most recently, that had been planned for November 2026, but key aspects have now been extended to June 2027.
With the prior November deadline looming, Swift observed that the stakeholders’ progress is “uneven,” with “large parts of the industry across all regions still unable to meet the requirement.” In consultation with stakeholders including domestic market infrastructures, Swift agreed to the extension and confirmed same in a recent announcement on its website.
Swift now is administering a “controlled extension”, with a new implementation target of 12th June 2027. That deferred release will include the changes to messages involving MT, ISO 20022 securities and fund, tracker, and exceptions and investigations.
Further developments
All the while, Swift has been running experiments to gauge how the use of AI and new cross-border payment rails can reduce fraud in international payments.
As it continues preparing for Europe’s transition to T+1, Swift has published three “Quick Guides” tailored for financial institutions, corporates and the payment market infrastructure community. The guides “are designed to raise awareness of the removal of unstructured addresses,” Swift states in a “call to action” news advisory.
As the faster cross-border payment networks become an operational reality, Swift and partners also are focusing on improving the customer experience and removing complexity.
