Global payments authority SWIFT has launched a new “network-agnostic” payments case management capability that promises to slash the time required to identify and resolve issues with cross-border payments delays.

The Case Management solution, developed and deployed by SWIFT, standardises the investigation process. It does so by leveraging ISO 20022 data and the UETR standard, both global standards for financial transaction messaging, providing, it says, transparency and interoperability across networks.

More than 30 global financial institutions have trialled the capability before its full launch, including BNY (Bank of New York), PagoNxt Payments (owned by Santander), and South Africa’s ABSA Bank.

Swift notes that the capability can be extended beyond the Swift network to include any payments network that makes use of unique end-to-end transaction reference (UETR) codes – a 36-character code enabling banks to trace payments, in real time (including status and location), across the payments lifecycle.

“By capturing information centrally, it eliminates the high number of manual touchpoints typically involved in an investigation between sending and receiving institutions,” Swift says.

Swift’s global head of transaction management Shirish Wadivkar said the enhanced solution addresses the critical pain points in the cross-border payments incidents investigations process, offering efficiency, time, and cost benefits to its adopters.

“It’s not only a great example of how the ISO 20022 standard can help our industry deliver better user experience by removing friction and providing transparency, but is also a case in point as to how Swift is committed to interoperating an increasingly complex financial ecosystem by extending the benefits of our solutions across networks,” he said.

According to Swift, financial institutions spend more than US$1.6 billion (AU$2.5 billion) each year on “labour-intensive” processes to investigate payments delays, with larger banks incurring more than US$20 million annually in fees and penalties alone for these delays.

These delays typically arise when a payment instruction is missing key information, with financial institutions taking, on average, between five to ten working days to investigate and resolve these issues.

Swift, citing its own research, said the capability could cut the industry’s operational and liquidity costs for payments investigations by more than US$600 million (AU$940 million) each year, whilst reducing the time to resolve a case by up to 80 per cent.