Swift partners with global firms to enable cross-border alias payments

Swift is collaborating with a global community of banks, payment service providers, and technology firms to implement ‘Pay by Alias’ for cross-border transactions. This initiative aims to replicate the ease of domestic consumer payments on an international scale by allowing users to send money using familiar identifiers such as mobile phone numbers, email addresses, or virtual payment addresses instead of traditional bank account details.

The project integrates established domestic systems, including Spain’s Bizum, Australia’s PayID (via Australian Payments Plus), and Brazil’s Pix. This work builds upon a consumer payments framework launched in June that already involves more than 100 banks.

Swift reports that its ongoing transformation of cross-border experiences has resulted in over 75% of payments reaching receiving banks within 10 minutes, with many arriving in seconds. Participating organizations include various major financial institutions such as BBVA, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, DBS, and Bradesco.