2. Welcome to
SWIFT Asia Pacific!
As the backbone of the world’s money flows, we have been serving the
financial community in Asia Pacific for over 30 years. We are very proud
of the many customers who entrust us every day to exchange millions of
standardised financial messages over our secured network.
The 21st century is rightly spoken of as the Asia Pacific century. Strong
economic growth in the last decade has positioned this region as the
growth engine of the world. Going forward, we at SWIFT are expected
to play a more important role in driving this success.
Our investment in Asia Pacific truly reflects this region’s growth and
development in the global financial industry. We will continue to do so,
and are committed to building world-class financial infrastructure in Asia
Pacific and as helping our industry create new business opportunities.
Yours sincerely,
Alain Raes,
Chief Executive, Asia Pacific and EMEA
SWIFT is the member-owned cooperative
that provides the communications platform, products and
services to connect over 10,000 banking organisations,
securities institutions and corporate customers
in 212 countries and territories.
3. SWIFT is the member-owned cooperative that
provides the communications platform,
products and services to connect over 10,000
banking organisations, securities institutions
and corporate customers in 212 countries and
territories. These institutions include fund
managers, broker-dealers, market
infrastructures, market data providers, retail,
wholesale and custodian banks and corporates.
Many of these institutions are also shareholders
of SWIFT.
SWIFT enables our users to exchange automated,
standardised financial information securely and
reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational
risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. We
also bring the financial community together to work
collaboratively to shape market practice, define
standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
SWIFT was started in 1973 with a small group of
people and an ambitious idea to create a worldwide
network and a common language for the world’s
financial transactions. Basically, the industry wanted
to replace the telex and fully embrace an increasingly
global industry. Our first operating centre opened in
1976 and the SWIFT service went live in 1977.
Who we are
SWIFT’s presence was extended to the US in 1979
and to Asia in 1980. Today we are at the heart of
the financial industry, handling more than 4 billion
messages a year between financial institutions,
market infrastructures and corporations. The
principles that started our cooperative are as strong
as ever. SWIFT was created by and for the financial
industry – our customers and their needs continue to
be the driving force behind the way we develop.
SWIFT has its global headquarters in Belgium and
has 24 offices around the world, with operating
centres in the United States and Europe.
4. amongst market participants
and nations.
We at SWIFT
Asian financial markets
seamless interoperability
have a vision for the future of
– a vision of
”
“
SWIFT enables our users to exchange
automated, standardised financial information
securely and reliably. We create the connections
and standards that make markets work across
the globe. We bring together the world’s
financial institutions, promoting dialogue and
helping to solve common industry problems.
And we combine a uniquely informed
perspective with the flexibility to respond to the
individual needs of every customer.
Whether your business is payments, treasury, trade
or securities, whether you work for a small local
brokerage or a global multi-service bank, SWIFT
enables you to automate and standardise your
transactions end-to-end. Our solutions can help
lower your costs, mitigate your risk and increase your
service levels.
• Messaging: SWIFT provides a range of
messaging services to exchange messages and
files tailored to specific banking and securities
transactions as well as a set of related tools to help
you get the most out of them.
• Connectivity: We offer the operational equipment
you need to connect to the network, including a
messaging hub, messaging software that provides
the connectivity to your business applications,
communications software to connect to all
SWIFTNet services as well as the physical network
connections to SWIFT.
• Standards: SWIFT collaborates with the user
community to standardise the messages
exchanged by organisations conducting financial
business.
What we do
• Applications: SWIFT offers several business
applications required to address specific business
needs. Our applications aim to make day-to-day
business easier for customers as well as lowering
their costs, improving their efficiency and reducing
their operational risk.
• Consulting Services: We provide consulting
services in the following areas: Business
Consulting, Technical Consulting, Implementation,
and Project Management, all with the aim of
helping our customers reduce costs and risk and
enable business growth and regulatory
compliance.
• Support Services: SWIFT provides 24 x 7
worldwide support which is delivered by a group of
expert analysts. This service covers administrative,
operational and technical matters and provides a
variety of support offerings tailored to customers’
needs.
• Business Intelligence: Our Business Intelligence
portfolio encompasses an entire suite of intuitive
tools including analytics, insights and economic
indicators designed to grow with a customer’s
business needs.
• Reference Data: SWIFTRef is the new industry-
wide utility for sourcing, maintaining and delivering
high-quality payments reference data. It’s a secure
platform where data owners, including banks,
central banks and code issuers, can manage and
publish their reference data so users can find all
the data sets they need in one place.
Our role is two-fold. We
provide the communications
platform, products and
services that allow our
customers to connect
and exchange financial
information securely and
reliably. We also act as the
catalyst that brings the
financial community
together.
5. 1973
1977
1980
1981
1991
1994
1997
2002
2003
2007
2008
2009
2012
2013
SWIFT founded
SWIFT goes live
Hong Kong and Singapore start live
operations; First Asian countries connected
to SWIFT
Japan goes live on SWIFT
Korea connected to SWIFT; Beijing office
opened; The first Sibos in Asia Pacific is
held in Hong Kong
First Asia Pacific Customer Service
Centre is set up in Hong Kong
Sydney office opened
Customer Service Centre opened
in Japan
Sibos is held in Singapore
Mumbai office opened
Shanghai office opened
Seoul office opened; Sibos
takes place in Hong Kong
First SWIFT board member
from China; The largest
Sibos in Asia Pacific is held
in Osaka
Joint venture is set up in
India; Corporate services
centre established in
Kuala Lumpur
Key Milestones
Building a
better financial
infrastructure in
Asia Pacific
At SWIFT, our goal is to support the economic
growth and stability of the Asia Pacific nations
by providing them with the financial
infrastructure that underpins their national
economies and connects them to the rest of the
world. In addition, we aim to ensure our global
membership benefits from the economic
growth, innovation and resources from this part
of the world.
Strong regional presence
SWIFT has been in Asia Pacific for over 30 years,
starting in Hong Kong and Singapore. Three regional
offices have been opened in Asia since 2005,
bringing the total to nine commercial and support
offices including our customer support centres in
Hong Kong and Tokyo. In March 2013, we opened a
new corporate services centre in Kuala Lumpur to
serve our offices around the world. As the world’s
centre of economic power shifts to the East, SWIFT
as a company is doing the same.
We maintain stability,
creating deeper relevance
at a time of deep change,
broadening the space
for collaboration, and
making the global
community more relevant
locally as the pattern of
growth in our
world shifts.
6. Where we contribute
Supporting financial infrastructure
for payments
SWIFT is a key partner of banking market
infrastructures around the world. In Asia Pacific,
SWIFT is used by payment market infrastructures
in more than 10 markets for their Real Time Gross
Settlement (“RTGS”) and retail payments systems,
including Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines,
Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Fiji, Hong Kong,
Macau and Taiwan. The adoption of SWIFT for
a payments market infrastructure leads to major
improvements in stability, efficiency, interoperability
and cost reduction for financial institutions and
regulators alike – something that’s vitally important in
fast-growing markets like those in Asia Pacific.
Securities markets
SWIFT supports the development of the securities
market in Asia Pacific across the entire spectrum
of market players, including brokers/dealers,
custodians, investment managers and securities
market infrastructures. Only SWIFT helps the industry
automate business processes covering post-trade
to pre-settlement, settlement and reconciliation,
corporate actions and collateral management
and more, for all asset classes. With demand for
investment growing in Asia – and as the need for
automation increases to meet this growth – SWIFT
and our highly resilient infrastructure has a critical
role to play to ensure that these markets and players
operate efficiently and securely.
Sibos – the world’s premier
financial services event
Every year Sibos brings together influential
leaders from financial institutions, market
infrastructures, multinational corporations and
technology partners to do business and shape
the future of the financial industry. Facilitated and
organised by SWIFT for the SWIFT community,
Sibos is much more than a conference and
exhibition. It is a unique forum to collaborate and
take collective action in payments, securities,
cash management and trade. With the power to
draw some 7,000 participants from across the
globe, Sibos is unparalleled in its reputation to
reach the entire financial services industry.