City Bank has become the first bank in the world to successfully validate and execute live transactions as both a sending and receiving bank under Swift’s new retail cross-border payment scheme.
More than 50 major banks across 17 countries—including Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Spain, Thailand, the UK, the Middle East and the US—have committed to adopting the new framework.
City Bank is currently the only Bangladeshi bank participating in the Swift scheme. The bank joined the initiative in February 2026 and achieved full project go-live readiness within five months.
Traditional cross-border payments and remittances often face delays and higher costs because of multiple intermediary banking channels, varying global processing times and different regulatory requirements. Intermediary charges also reduce the amount ultimately received by beneficiaries.
To address these challenges, Swift introduced the new payment framework to enable retail customers and small businesses to make faster, more predictable and transparent international transfers.
The framework offers guaranteed full-value transfers without hidden intermediary deductions, upfront fee transparency, end-to-end payment traceability, faster settlement, predictable delivery times and 24/7 gateway availability.
These features are designed to ensure that funds reach beneficiaries quickly, transparently and in full.
City Bank completed its first transaction under the scheme in one minute, while subsequent transactions were completed in 57 seconds on 22 June 2026.
On 23 June 2026, acting as a receiving bank, City Bank coordinated with HDFC India to clear and route an incoming payment from India to another local Bangladeshi bank.
Banks worldwide have been progressively going live under the new framework since June 2026, supporting the G20’s objective of improving the speed, transparency, predictability and efficiency of cross-border payments while eliminating hidden intermediary charges.
City Bank’s achievement was recently recognised at an event titled ‘Streamlining Inward Remittances and Enhancing Operational Efficiency Across Bangladesh’s Financial Sector’, jointly organised by Swift and the Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB).
During the event, a crest was presented to Mashrur Arefin, managing director and CEO of City Bank, by Md Habibur Rahman, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, and Kiran Shetty, CEO and regional head, India & South Asia, Swift.
Senior representatives from City Bank, including Mahia Juned, additional managing director, COO & CAMELCO; Mesbaul Asif Siddiqui, deputy managing director and head of Wholesale Banking; and Arpita Ghosh, account director – India and country manager – Bangladesh, also attended the ceremony.
