Swift Connects Bizum, PayID and Pix to Cross-Border Network, Letting Users Send Money Abroad With a Phone Number
Swift Connects Bizum, PayID and Pix to Cross-Border Network, Letting Users Send Money Abroad With a Phone Number #
Swift has announced a cross-industry initiative to bring the alias-based payment experience of domestic instant payment platforms, including Spain’s Bizum, Australia’s PayID, and Brazil’s Pix, to international money transfers. Announced September 28, 2026, the initiative would let consumers send money abroad using a mobile phone number, email address, or virtual payment address instead of traditional bank account details.
The financial messaging cooperative is assembling a coalition of banks, payment service providers, and technology companies across four continents. Identifiers stored in participating domestic payment systems would be matched to a recipient’s account for international transactions routed over Swift’s network, so senders and recipients would not need to exchange account numbers or routing codes.
Swift describes the initiative as the next phase of its consumer payments scheme, which launched in June and has since drawn more than 100 participating banks. The company says 75 percent of payments on its network now reach the receiving bank within ten minutes, often in seconds.
Confirmed participants at launch include Australian Payments Plus, the operator of PayID; Brazil’s Bradesco and Ouribank; Mexico’s Banorte; Spain’s BBVA, Bizum, and CaixaBank; Peru’s Banco de Crédito del Perú; and Citizens Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, DBS, IDFC FIRST Bank, TerraPay, and Veritran.
Juan Martinez, Managing Director of Swift’s Payments Platform, said the goal is to remove complexity at the start of a transaction, before a sender looks up an account number, so that sending money internationally is as straightforward as sending it domestically. Lynn Kraus, CEO of Australian Payments Plus, said PayID users are already accustomed to initiating transfers with a mobile number or email address, and the initiative would extend that to cross-border payments.
Swift also faces competition from card-network push-payment products, fintech-operated corridors, and stablecoin-based settlement systems. The alias integration would give it a role earlier in the transaction, before the messaging and settlement layer it has traditionally operated.
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