- Eleanor Hill
- Editorial Consultant, Treasury Management International (TMI)
Javier Pérez-Tasso has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT. A member of the SWIFT Executive team for the past seven years, he served as Chief Executive Americas & UK region before taking up his appointment on 1 July 2019 to succeed Gottfried Leibbrandt.
Pérez-Tasso joined SWIFT in 1995 and was appointed Chief Executive, Americas & UK region in September 2015. In this position, he significantly deepened SWIFT’s engagement model with global transaction banks and successfully delivered business development results in high-growth markets. He was also an Executive sponsor of SWIFT’s Customer Security Programme from 2016 to 2018, helping to formulate and lead SWIFT’s response to the growing cyber challenge facing the community.
Before that, he served as Chief Marketing Officer, a role in which he was responsible for developing SWIFT’s current five-year strategy. The SWIFT2020 strategy he defined has led to the co-operative’s renewed focus on cross-border payments, expansion into financial crime compliance and deeper presence in the market infrastructures area, including its entry into instant payments.
Earlier in his career, Pérez-Tasso held a number of technology and leadership positions in business development in regional offices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A Spanish national, Pérez-Tasso holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Institut National Polytéchnique de Grenoble, a Master’s degree in Management from Solvay Business School, a Master in Finance from IE Business School and the Executive TGM from Insead.
As Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT, he will be based at SWIFT’s headquarters in Belgium.
SWIFT Chairman Yawar Shah said: “I am delighted to announce Javier’s appointment with the full endorsement of the Board. SWIFT has an exceptionally strong management team which has enabled the Board to appoint an internal candidate and which will also allow for a smooth transition.
“Javier‘s track record of impressive leadership, coupled with his in-depth understanding of the company and its business, means that he is expertly positioned for this new role. I am confident that his appointment will ensure that SWIFT can continue to build on its tradition of excellence and innovation in support of the global financial community, while also enabling acceleration of its endorsed strategy.”
