SWIFT INTERVIEW
across the Eurosystem, will be introduced in
November 2022.
This will all be based on ISO 20022 – but
overall the standard is in a way less import-
ant than the features that it will allow. Much
more – and richer – data will be available to
Eurosystem users and the exchange of data
between participants and market infrastruc-
tures will also be easier. In turn, this will en-
able the market infrastructure participants to
improve their services to customers – failing
transactions mean unhappy customers.
CS: How are banks responding to payments
transformation? What types of decisions are
they facing?
SD: Banks need to decide what they want
to be in this new payments landscape.
There are big decisions to make, with many
possibilities. Some banks will focus on
specific customer or country segments and
offer products and services that are very
focused on the types of customers they want
to service. Other banks may exploit new
technologies to build platforms through
which they can share products and services
with others. For example, a lending platform
might include all of the products required for
buying a home, including a mortgage, home
insurance, removal services and other loans.
So in seconds, a mortgage approval could be
made and the customer could purchase all
the other requirements – such experiences in
Club @ Sibos
life always end in a payment. Still other banks
may combine elements of both, segmenting
for particular sectors and offering platforms
for others.
These decisions require a more long-term
vision on the part of banks. For the past
30-40 years, banks have offered more or less
the same payments services to customers.
The transformation the industry is now
undergoing will not be one from A to B but
will be a continuous transformation with no
‘end game’. With new technologies and new
entrants into the payments market, banks will
be continually challenged. Technology such
as APIs and developments such as instant
payments will be the key to the flexibility
banks will require in this continuously chang-
ing environment.
CS: And what about SWIFT? What role does it
have to play and what decisions does it face?
SD: These are also interesting and exciting
times for SWIFT. We too have been trans-
forming, becoming more agile and innovative.
We have always developed products and
services in non-competitive spaces that can
be mutualised and used by our members to
decrease their costs. Examples include the
KYC Registry, Sanctions Screening, gpi etc.
We are also supporting our customers as
they create new products and services. For ex-
ample, in Australia we have played an integral
role in the design, development and running
of the New Payments Platform for instant
payments, and we are about to go live with
new instant payment solutions in Europe, with
the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment
Settlement and EBA CLEARING’s RT1.
Another way in which we can help banks
to transition is by providing the ability to test
new technologies. Our DLT proof of concept
for nostro account reconciliation in gpi that
involved 34 banks concluded the technology
was not yet ready for mass adoption in this
area but has promising elements that will
be monitored for the future. SWIFT is also
rolling out APIs in various different ways,
through products and also via a platform that
enables banks to share APIs with each other
and with fintechs.
SWIFT offers single window access to mar-
ket infrastructures around the world and has
also reinvented correspondent banking via
gpi. We are helping our members as they fight
cyber crime by offering the Customer Secu-
rity Programme, which guides banks on how
to protect and detect cyber attacks and share
information anonymously about attacks.
The payments landscape is changing and
SWIFT’s aim is to help members to make
some big decisions, knowing there is the
support they need.
To read SWIFT’s white paper on the Transfor-
mation of the European Payments Landscape,
please go to www.swift.com/white-papers
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