SWIFT Tackles Last-Mile Delays in Cross-Border Payments with New Analysis

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) has published new analysis showing that last-mile delays in cross-border payments are a significant bottleneck, and that XRP can potentially solve this issue.

According to SWIFT's data, while the core network has become significantly faster, with 75% of payments reaching beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, processing, validation, and crediting at the destination account still accounts for around 80% of total payment time.

The organisation identifies complex regulatory reporting requirements, country-specific FX and risk controls, limited 24/7 real-time infrastructure, and manual or fragmented internal processes as key sources of last-mile friction.

SWIFT's newly published Payment Optimisation Index and Playbook is designed to help banks, market infrastructures, and policymakers identify structural frictions and prioritise improvements.