New Delhi, June 14 -- Swift, the familiar acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has been the backbone of international banking communication for over 50 years. Over 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries use Swift for trillions of transactions every day.

But geopolitics, unilateral sanctions that deny access, the growth of digital finance, etc, are driving the development of faster, cheaper alternatives that are free of Swift's structural limitations.

The world no longer operates at the pace it did in 1973, when Swift was set up. The structural drawbacks of Swift include a single-currency (US dollar) architecture, delays, costs and vulnerability to geopolitical leverage.

International transfer...