Citi Becomes First Bank to Launch Multi-Market Instant Payments on the Swift Payments Scheme

NEW YORK - Today, Citi announced that it is the first bank to go live with multiple markets on the Swift payments scheme. This solution, enabled through Citi’s Global Clearing network and WorldLink® Payment Services, allows bank clients to access multiple cross-border instant payment markets through a single account structure and eliminates the need for separate local banking relationships, bilateral agreements, or local technical infrastructure. Citi plans to expand this capability to additional currencies and markets in the future.

Through this collaboration with Swift and the broader banking ecosystem, Citi is actively shaping the future of the cross-border payments landscape. Building on Citi's participation in Swift's ledger initiative and real-time capabilities delivered through Citi Custody+, 24/7 USD Clearing and Citi Token Services, these advancements represent another significant step in Citi Services' strategy to enable interoperable, multi-bank, real-time and always-on movement of money, liquidity, securities, and collateral across borders.

Historically, enabling instant cross-border payments across multiple countries required financial institutions to open separate accounts in each local market, establish bilateral agreements with individual partner banks, and build custom integrations to local clearing systems. Citi’s multi-market solution mitigates these barriers. Available to more than 12,500 financial institutions connected to Swift, participating bank clients¹ can now access multiple domestic real-time payment networks through their existing Swift connection—without opening local bank accounts or deploying new local infrastructure.

Leveraging established instant payment rails and mature ISO 20022 (MX) capabilities, Citi has enabled real-time payments through the Swift payments scheme in AUD via NPP (New Payments Platform), GBP via FPS (Faster Payment System), and INR via IMPS (Immediate Payment Service). Additionally, Citi has expanded its USD Clearing capabilities², allowing clients to transfer funds directly to Citi U.S. beneficiaries for faster, broader global access.

By leveraging Citi's industry-leading global network, mature MX-enabled capabilities, and seamless connectivity to the Swift payments scheme, Citi Services is enabling clients to bring new payment capabilities to market more quickly and simplify access to multiple payment markets.

Leigh Amaro, Chief Executive, Americas at Swift, said: “Industry collaboration is essential to delivering the faster, more transparent and more predictable cross-border payments experience consumers have come to expect. As usage of Swift’s retail payments framework grows and more corridors become active, greater certainty over cost and delivery time, full-value transfers and end-to-end visibility into international payments will become a reality for more people and businesses around the world.”

This launch builds on Citi Services’ broader suite of real-time account-to-account payments solutions via WorldLink. The offering integrates cross-border instant payments and real-time wires to deliver rapid, efficient global fund movements. Through one relationship, clients gain direct connectivity to nine instant payment schemes and near real-time wires in 20 currencies and 54 markets. WorldLink offers payments in 135 currencies with integrated FX across over 4,500 currency pairs, in addition to account-to-account payments, clients can also pay into wallets and cards.