Citigroup goes live with real-time cross-border payments across the U.K., India, and Australia.
In what Citigroup Inc. bills as an industry first, the bank has gone live with real-time cross-border payments across the U.K., India, and Australia through a single Swift connection, though Global Finance could not independently confirm the claim.
While in attendance at this year’s Sibos 2026 event in Miami, the firm announced that its service now allows clients to access several countries’ instant payment systems through a single account structure.
The service runs through Citi’s Global Clearing network and its WorldLink Payment Services platform. Banks no longer need to open local accounts, sign agreements with partner banks individually, or build technical infrastructure in each market, the company said.
Citi has turned on real-time payments through the scheme in three currencies: Australian dollars through the New Payments Platform, British pounds through Faster Payments, and Indian rupees through the Immediate Payment Service. It also expanded its U.S. dollar clearing so clients can send money directly to Citi beneficiaries in the U.S. The bank plans to add more currencies and markets.
Thousands of financial institutions are connected to Swift. According to the firm, those that sign up with Citi can reach domestic real-time payment networks through the Swift connection they already have.
Why It Matters
Until now, instant payments across several countries meant a bank had to open accounts in each market, negotiate with local partner banks and build custom links to each clearing system.
Citi had been attempting to speed things up for a while.
Today’s launch extends the bank’s ongoing push toward round-the-clock payments. In 2024, Citi and Emirates NBD launched a 24/7 U.S. dollar clearing service. Sen said in an interview that year that time zones and early cutoffs had become a burden for clients. “You cannot wait for the U.S. to open,” she said. “Perhaps it wasn’t important eight years ago, but it’s very important today.”
With this latest development with Citi, Leigh Amaro, CEO for the Americas at Swift, said industry collaboration is key to faster, more predictable cross-border payments.
“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,” she said in a prepared statement.
The announcement comes as Swift delays its November deadline to stop accepting unstructured address data under ISO 20022 by six months.
Broader Real-Time Strategy
The launch builds on Citi’s role in Swift’s ledger initiative and on its real-time services, including Citi Custody+, 24/7 U.S. dollar clearing and Citi Token Services. Together they are part of the bank’s push to move money, liquidity, securities and collateral across borders around the clock.
“We see instant cross-border payment rails like the SWIFT payments scheme and tokenized/digital asset solutions, such as Citi Token Services, as complementary rather than competing,” Emanuela Saccarola, Head of Cross Border Payments at Citi, said in an email. “Citi Token Services and Swift’s broader digital asset and ledger initiatives are exploring how tokenized deposits, and distributed ledger technology can further advance, scale and become interoperable among banks and networks.”
Over time, Citi expects these approaches to interoperate, she added.
Through WorldLink, clients can connect to nine instant payment schemes and send near real-time wires in 20 currencies across 54 markets. The platform handles payments in 135 currencies and foreign exchange across more than 4,500 currency pairs. It can also pay into digital wallets and cards.
Instant payments also appear to be a theme at this year’s Sibos 2026 event in Miami. Bank of America, for example, just announced that it had executed its first real-time payment initiated by Bradesco.
Read more of Global Finance’s coverage of Sibos 2026 in Miami.
Anthony Noto covers corporate finance and private credit. Contact him at anoto@gfmag.com
