| 

CIPS, SWIFT and the fashion supply chain's new money map

Two terms, SWIFT and CIPS, sit at the centre of this conversation. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is the world’s dominant secure financial messaging network, a member-owned cooperative headquartered in Belgium that is overseen by major central banks and links more than **,*** institutions. It does not move money itself so much as provide the standardised language and security layer banks use to instruct and confirm cross-border payments across many currencies.

On the other hand, the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), backed by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), is a clearing and settlement system designed for cross-border payments in Chinese renminbi (RMB), with its own participant structure and standards. The operator also differentiates direct participants that hold accounts and transact directly on the system and indirect participants that access CIPS through those direct banks.