Helping clients navigate the global evolution of payments for five decades

Every second of every day, money is moving around the world—salaries, mortgage payments, trade settlements, and microtransactions—all flowing through a complex digital network that most people never see. Behind much of that infrastructure stands CGI. We’re one of the few providers whose technology innovation helps financial services leaders power the global payments ecosystem.

Today, we help clients move more than
$21 trillion
in payments daily, including real-time transactions that settle in seconds.

 

Our payments story began long before “real time” became a buzzword. It extends back to SWIFT, the world’s first electronic payments exchange.

A legacy born with SWIFT

In 1969, we reviewed the design for SWIFT and developed early SWIFT interface solutions for banks. This work placed us on a path toward redefining how money moves. Over the next five decades, we partnered with financial institutions worldwide to modernize and digitize their systems, making payments easier, faster, and more secure for millions of people.

That expertise now supports:

  • 40% of global foreign exchange settlements
  • 35% of U.S. wire-based transaction volume
  • 20% of SWIFT payment transactions
  • $500 billion per day through central market infrastructures
  • $167 billion daily through Canada’s interbank funds transfer system

These numbers speak not only to scale, but to innovation and trust.

Building Europe’s largest payment schemes

From SWIFT, we went on to design, build, and operate some of Europe’s most critical payment infrastructures. In the UK, we were instrumental in designing CHAPS, the country’s clearing house automated payment system, and later transitioning it to real-time gross settlement (RTGS). We also helped build Ireland’s first RTGS infrastructure.

Our work extended to the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) system—a landmark innovation that transformed global foreign exchange by reducing settlement risk. We designed the CLS member bank interface and integration framework, helping to connect global banks to a safer and more efficient foreign exchange market.

Our expertise has supported many other major European payment initiatives, including:

  • Faster Payments program (UK)
  • Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) (EU)
  • Payments Council (UK)
  • Mobile Payments Service (UK)
  • Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) (EU)
  • Request-to-pay (UK)

In the Nordics, we also were called upon to support P27 Nordic Payments, a cross-border initiative serving 27 million people across multiple currencies.

Each of these projects marked a milestone in modern payments and enabled our financial services clients to achieve accelerated business outcomes.

Powering progress in North America

Our story in North America began with another first—developing the initial bank interface for the Federal Reserve’s Fedwire network, which supported the first-ever electronic wire transaction in the U.S. That spirit of innovation continues today, from helping clients become the first cloud-based banks to process Fedwire payments, to participating in the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service℠ pilot, advancing instant payments across the U.S.

We also helped shape the next generation of standards, contributing to the U.S. ACH ISO 20022 XML Opt-in Program, a critical step toward global data harmonization in payments.

Leading the real-time revolution

The rise of real-time payments has transformed global commerce, allowing money to move at the speed of life. Behind the scenes, our technology has enabled this shift.

Our flagship solution,

CGI All Payments

delivers instantaneous end-to-end processing and is cloud-proven,
giving banks the agility to modernize securely and efficiently.

 

As financial institutions race to adapt to new schemes and technologies, we continue to guide them, not just through technical implementation, but through the strategic transformation needed to thrive in an era of open banking and digital currencies.

A quiet force shaping the future of money

The story of payments is, at its heart, a story of trust, speed, and connection. From the early days of SWIFT to today’s real-time global economy, we have been a steady partner, helping banks, regulators, and consumers navigate change with confidence, and we look forward to supporting our clients’ payments transformation journeys in the decades to come.

Thanks to our clients—their aspirations and collaboration—we’ve had the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the world’s financial systems, making them secure, reliable, and faster than ever before.