Karachi, April 10, 2025 – Bank Alfalah, one of Pakistan’s leading commercial banks, has announced a strategic partnership with SWIFT, the global financial messaging network, to implement Payment Pre-validation, a groundbreaking solution aimed at enhancing the speed, accuracy, and security of cross-border payments. This collaboration is set to benefit all banks in Pakistan by enabling seamless and secure financial transactions across borders.
This partnership will leverage Bank Alfalah’s extensive network through 1LINK, a prominent interbank network, to enable any SWIFT-connected institution worldwide to conduct upfront checks of beneficiary details for over 200 million bank accounts in Pakistan. This move is a significant step toward enhancing Pakistan’s banking infrastructure and ensuring a smooth transition into a more digitally integrated financial ecosystem.
SWIFT’s Payment Pre-validation service is designed to mitigate the risks associated with cross-border payments by validating essential payment details before funds are transferred. This proactive verification process will allow banks and businesses to confirm account details such as the International Bank Account Number (IBAN), account name, and currency codes, ensuring that the right information is processed before any money changes hands. As a result, the service drastically reduces errors, delays, and fraud risks, ultimately leading to faster and more secure transactions.
Farooq A. Khan, Group Head of Corporate Banking and International Business at Bank Alfalah, expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration, stating, “At Bank Alfalah, we are committed to boosting financial innovation and improving customer experiences. Our work with SWIFT marks a significant milestone in our efforts to make cross-border transactions more secure, efficient, and cost-effective. With Payment Pre-validation, our customers will benefit from reduced transaction failures, enhanced fraud prevention, and faster payments, solidifying our position as a leader in digital banking solutions in Pakistan.”
Onur Ozan, Managing Director at SWIFT, highlighted the importance of this initiative, saying, “SWIFT is committed to enabling financial institutions to offer a best-in-class payments experience. Our Payment Pre-validation solution provides peace of mind to customers sending money internationally, ensuring that their funds will reach their intended destination securely. This initiative will empower all banks in Pakistan and significantly increase the efficiency of payments flowing from regions such as the Middle East, Europe, the UK, and the USA into Pakistan.”
The introduction of Payment Pre-validation is particularly important in the context of Pakistan’s rapidly growing cross-border payment volumes. As international transactions become more frequent, the risk of rejected payments due to incorrect or missing information has increased. SWIFT’s solution addresses these challenges by leveraging a global network to verify payment details against historical transaction data and centralized datasets, making it easier for banks to confirm the accuracy of the information provided before initiating transfers.
By validating key user information—such as IBANs, account numbers, beneficiary names, and payment purposes—before processing payments, the service significantly strengthens security and reduces the likelihood of unauthorized transactions. This preemptive approach not only mitigates the risk of fraud but also improves payment accuracy, ensuring that account details are accurate and up-to-date, thus minimizing the chances of errors.
Furthermore, Payment Pre-validation is highly cost-efficient. SWIFT estimates that payment failures and fund reversals cost the financial industry approximately €2 billion annually. By reducing such failures, this solution offers banks and businesses a significant opportunity to cut operational costs and enhance the overall efficiency of cross-border payments.
This collaboration marks another milestone for Bank Alfalah, which has long been at the forefront of digital banking innovation in Pakistan. By enhancing the security and efficiency of cross-border transactions, Bank Alfalah is reinforcing its commitment to providing secure, reliable, and cost-effective financial solutions for its customers, while also contributing to the digital transformation of Pakistan’s banking sector.