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Promoting Innovation and Adoption of SWIFTNet

by Stéphanie Niemi, Head of Marketing, Global Channels and Cécile Desbouis, EBAM Product Manager, BNP Paribas

While many large multinational corporations have been connected to their banking partners through SWIFTNet for a number of years, over the past year we have seen considerable new interest from mid-caps as well as large corporations. No longer the domain of the largest and most sophisticated corporations, SWIFTNet is now a viable and beneficial bank connectivity option, for single or multiple banks, both domestic and international flows. This article looks at some of the most recent trends and innovations in SWIFT connectivity for corporates, and why an increasing number of companies of all sizes and in all regions are seeking to benefit from BNP Paribas’ expertise in this area.

The BNP Paribas experience

BNP Paribas has been a forerunner in promoting and facilitating SWIFT connectivity for our corporate clients. As a result of our long-term commitment to supporting our clients’ communication needs, BNP Paribas remains the 1st bank group worldwide in terms of number of SWIFTNet corporate customers. We are represented on the SWIFT board, participate actively in working groups and we are pioneers in adopting new standards in financial messaging.

We recognise that the right connectivity is simply a channel for financial messaging, and therefore to deliver the efficiency, control and liquidity management benefits that our corporate customers demand, connectivity needs to be part of a wider cash, treasury and payments optimisation project. Consequently, we first started to promote centralised payments in the 1990s using financial messaging standards such as EDIFACT, and we are now a global leader in setting up regional or global payment factories. We have now implemented payment factories and shared service centres worldwide, including SWIFT connectivity and the most recent ISO 20022 XML-based standards. Our clients are therefore benefiting from greater efficiency, visibility and control of their cash globally and across multiple banking partners, whilst reducing costs and standardising financial transactions and information flows across the business.