Published: October 29, 2012
At this year’s Corporate Forum at Sibos, we celebrate ’Corporate 1,000’, recognising that 1,000 corporates now connect to their banks via SWIFTNet. This is a particularly important milestone for me personally as it marks the next step in the journey towards SWIFTNet becoming a collaborative network for the whole spectrum of financial participants.
Over the next two to three years, we expect to see this number grow rapidly, with accelerating corporate adoption motivated by a range of initiatives from both SWIFT and participating banks. By the middle of 2012, there were 1,600 bank end points to which corporates could connect through SWIFTNet (out of a total of 9,000), a number that is growing by around 4% each quarter. This is a strong indication that banks are becoming increasingly enthusiastic about corporate connectivity to SWIFT. Some banks have proved particularly supportive, and five banks now have more than 200 of their corporate customers connected. While the majority of these corporates connect to between 3-10 banks, a significant number connect to 11-20 banks and some to more than 50 banks.
While most early corporate adopters of SWIFTNet were large multinational corporations, its potential is not restricted to these companies. Indeed, the ability to exchange a growing range of financial messages through a single, bank-neutral channel with multiple banking partners in a highly secure and standardised way is an objective for organisations of all sizes. Consequently, one of our priorities is to make it as easy as possible for corporates to connect through SWIFTNet to achieve their communication objectives. We are doing this in a variety of ways through initiatives in i) Standardisation, ii) Ease of Use and iii) New Solutions.
Common Global Implementation (CGI). We are proactively supporting the CGI initiative which aims to define, promote and simplify the use of ISO 20022 financial messaging standards for corporate users globally. By standardising the format of information that is exchanged, as well as the channel itself, corporate treasurers and finance managers can simplify their technology platforms and integration requirements, on-board new banking partners more quickly and streamline financial processes globally. The CGI recently published its global implementation guidelines, documenting ’best practices’ for corporate-to-bank communication based on ISO20022 messages. CGI and SWIFT have launched a new website where all these implementation documents can be downloaded: www.swift.com/corporates/cgi/resource_centre.
MyStandards. As a complementary initiative to CGI, MyStandards is a new, collaborative web-based platform designed to help manage the development and adoption of standards in the financial industry. It provides a central repository of format and usage guidelines so that users can search for content in a structured way and access information easily. For corporates, this means they will be able to obtain the implementation documentation from their banking partners in a standard and consistent way.
Alliance Lite2. The predecessor to this solution, Alliance Lite, has been available for the past three years, but this new version offers a wealth of enhancements in terms of functionality, transaction volume and integration capabilities. We believe that this new version will fuel a significant acceleration in corporate adoption of SWIFT. Alliance Lite2 is a robust, cloud-based solution that offers corporates of all sizes, particularly mid-cap corporates and non-bank financial institutions, a convenient, cost-effective means of connecting to their banking partners. Many organisations, particularly those without substantial IT resources within their treasury or finance functions, or that have modest transaction volumes, have found it difficult to justify migrating to SWIFT in the past. Therefore, the implementation and pricing model for Alliance Lite2 is already proving extremely attractive to a wide spectrum of companies.
Bank readiness certification programme. Secure, efficient bank communication is an essential requirement for all organisations. They need to be assured that the banking partners supporting their implementation and on-going use of SWIFT have the competence and experience to do so. SWIFT’s bank readiness certification programme is proving a competitive advantage for accredited banks, and a valuable means for corporates to determine the functionality and capabilities offered by potential banking partners.[[[PAGE]]]
Alongside this initiative, we are focused on supporting banks’ onboarding programmes to enhance the experience of corporate customers. For example, we recently announced a new Asia Pacific corporate hub co-located in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, complementing existing centres in Europe and North America, and building on our existing presence in the region.
3SKey. SWIFT’s personal digital identity solution, 3SKey, has become well-established in countries such as France where personal digital signatures are a requirement, but also more widely as companies and banks seek to implement industry best practices for transaction security globally. 3SKey has also proved that it can increase efficiency for corporates and banks alike, in addition to reducing costs by up to 40% for the banks compared with the expenses associated with building and maintaining a proprietary solution. More than 25,000 tokens have now been issued and 13,000 active users are authenticating and approving transactions with multiple banks in more than 50 countries. Today, 28 banking groups are using 3SKey with their corporate customers, and we are continuing to extend bank adoption in all regions.
EBAM (Electronic Bank Account Management). Several banks that offer an EBAM service can now be reached over the SWIFT network using the EBAM ISO 20022 XML standards. This brand new solution is expected to further expand in the near future to more banks, and with more functionality.
A source of personal satisfaction for me is not only the acceleration in the number of corporate users of SWIFTNet, but also their increasing level of engagement both with other corporate users and with the wider financial community. For example, local SWIFT corporate communities are now active in countries such as US, Germany and France, which is extremely valuable both in enhancing corporate users’ experience of SWIFT, and ensuring that corporates influence the on-going development of services available through SWIFTNet.
Many corporates are looking at ways to improve their treasury and finance function through centralisation, process enhancements, bank rationalisation, technology replacement or upgrade. Reviewing bank connectivity should be an integral part of these projects. Whether a large multinational with a presence across the globe or a mid-cap company operating in a few markets, the opportunities for efficient, secure, bank-neutral connectivity through SWIFT have never been greater.
How Thought Leadership Can Reduce the Cost of Sales by Patrik Havander, Havander & Partners A focused attention on the costs incurred by the global sales and marketing processes is becoming increasingly important for corporate banks and their transaction banking departments. While the client/bank relationship remains vital, research has shown that in fact relationship selling […]
