Cross-border payment efficiency: Bank Alfalah teams up with Swift

KARACHI: Bank Alfalah, has announced a strategic collaboration with Swift to enhance security and efficiency for cross-border payments to any bank account in Pakistan.

This collaboration will see Bank Alfalah through 1LINK enable any Swift-connected institution anywhere in the world to carry out upfront checks of beneficiary data for any of the 200 million plus bank accounts in Pakistan.

Swift’s Payment Pre-validation service reduces risk by validating key payment details before funds are transferred. By allowing banks and businesses to verify account details, including IBAN, account name, and currency codes before processing payments, the service significantly reduces errors, delays, and fraud risks in international transactions, while enhancing peace of mind for the payer.

Talking about the collaboration, Farooq A Khan, Group Head Corporate Banking and International Business, Bank Alfalah said that Bank Alfalah is committed to boosting financial innovation and improving customer experiences. “Our work with Swift is a significant step in making cross-border transactions more secure, efficient, and cost-effective”, he added.

Onur Ozan, Managing Director at Swift, said that this initiative will empower all banks in Pakistan, and increase the efficiency of payments sent from the Middle East, Europe, UK, and USA into this important payments corridor.

The introduction of Payment Pre-validation is particularly crucial for Pakistan’s banking industry, where growing volumes of cross-border payments have increased the risk of rejected transactions due to missing or incorrect information. Swift’s solution addresses these challenges thanks to a global network to verify payment details against historical transaction data and centralized datasets.

This service strengthens payment security by validating user information such as IBANs, account numbers, beneficiary names, and payment purposes, preventing unauthorized transactions and reducing financial risks for both businesses and individuals.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025