The unique market and competitive analysis that gpi Observer Analytics provides will allow African gpi-member banks to act on reliable and fact-based information to understand the current itinerary and speed of their payment instructions.

Larize Nel, Payments Portfolio Manager, ABSA Bank, said: “Complex data made simple! This is such a powerful tool. It provides a simplistic and customized view on data that was previously difficult to access, analyze and visualize.”

According to a recent SWIFT white paper, transaction banking corridors in Africa have shifted in recent years. The report, based on SWIFT Business Intelligence data, shows an increase in intra-African clearing and trade and a move towards regional currency usage. The gpi Observer Analytics will now allow African banks to navigate this evolving landscape, optimise payment routings and steer their cross-border payment strategies.

By benchmarking and monitoring gpi payments at country, country corridor, and currency level, financial institutions will be able to see their activity shares, view gpi market practices and identify new business opportunities. They will also be able to use the tool to spot any outliers in their cross-border payment flows.

In addition, it will enable financial institutions to fine-tune Service Level Agreements with their correspondent banks, leading to lower costs and faster payments and, ultimately, an improved customer value proposition.

Denis Kruger, Head of Sub-Sahara Africa at SWIFT, said: “SWIFT’s gpi Observer Analytics data will allow African banks to enhance the international payments experience for their customers and can improve payment delivery management with their banking partners. There has been a reduction in the number of foreign correspondent banking relationships which has affected most of Africa. Initiatives such as gpi are helping African banks become more competitive by dramatically improving customer experience through speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking of cross-border payments.”

Launched following a successful pilot with 17 banks, gpi Observer Analytics is now available to all gpi banks.

Harry Newman, Head of Banking, SWIFT, said: “Banks want to have much more information to help them better direct their payment messages. gpi Observer Analytics is designed to give gpi members deeper business insights into their gpi payment flows giving them routing intelligence and allowing them to benchmark against the wider gpi community.”

About SWIFT Business Intelligence

Launched in 2005, SWIFT’s Business Intelligence (BI) portfolio encompasses an entire suite of intuitive tools including analytics, insights, consulting services and economic indicators designed to grow with customers’ business needs. The current portfolio includes Watch Analytics, a platform to analyse and report traffic volumes, value and currency by market, message type and region especially focusing on payments, trade finance, foreign exchange and securities markets. Watch Insights offer visual and business oriented dashboards on a subset of correspondent banking traffic.

The gpi Observer Insights monitors adherence to the gpi rulebook – the ‘business rules’ is extended to gpi Observer Analytics. BI Services, including BI for gpi, bring value beyond the data, and SWIFT Economics feature the monthly RMB Tracker, RMB Market Insights report and FX Performance Insights.

About SWIFT gpi

The SWIFT global payments innovation (SWIFT gpi) is the largest change in cross-border payments over the last 30 years and is the new standard. SWIFT gpi dramatically improves the customer experience in cross-border payments by increasing their speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking. Hundreds of thousands of cross-border payments are today being sent using the new gpi standard, and payments are made quickly, typically within minutes, even seconds.

SWIFT gpi allows corporates to receive an enhanced payments service, with the following key features:

    Faster, same day use of funds within the time zone of the receiving gpi member
    Transparency of fees
    End-to-end payments tracking
    Remittance information transferred unaltered

As an initiative, SWIFT gpi engages the global banking industry and fintech communities to innovate in the area of cross-border payments while reducing their back-office costs. Since its launch in January 2017, gpi has dramatically improved the cross-border payments experience for corporates in over 500 country corridors. Key features of the gpi service include enhanced business rules and a secure tracking database in the cloud accessible via APIs.

Thanks to SWIFT gpi, corporates can grow their international business, improve supplier relationships, and achieve greater treasury efficiencies. Overall, nearly 50% of SWIFT gpi payments are credited to end beneficiaries within 30 minutes, and over 90% of payments within 24 hours. Those that take longer typically involve more complex foreign exchange conversions, compliance checks or regulatory authorisations.

In addition to the more than 200 financial institutions that have adopted gpi, more than 55 payment market infrastructures are already exchanging gpi payments, enabling domestic exchange and tracking. Payment market infrastructures have a critical role to play in facilitating the end-to-end tracking of cross-border payments because as soon as international payments hit the destination country, they are typically cleared through local payment infrastructures.

About SWIFT

SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance.

Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world.

As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community’s access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. SWIFT also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern. SWIFT’s strategic five year plan, SWIFT2020, challenges SWIFT to continue investing in the security, reliability and growth of its core messaging platform, while making additional investments in existing services and delivering new and innovative solutions.

Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT’s international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.

For further information on the Observer Analytics tool, visit  www.swift.com/ObserverAnalytics and for more information about SWIFT, visit www.swift.com or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: SWIFT.

[1] Africa Payments: Insights into African transaction flows, SWIFT, 2018; https://www.swift.com/africa-payments