SWIFT is a worldwide cooperative owned by its member financial institutions that provides secure financial messaging services. It has over 10,000 member institutions in more than 200 countries. SWIFT allows banks and other financial organizations to communicate transaction information securely through a standardized system of codes. It provides reliable facilities for the exchange of financial messages globally and contributes to greater automation of financial transactions between members.

1. SWIFT
The Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial
Telecommunication
Dr. Mohamed Kutty Kakkakunnan
Associate Professor
P G Dept. Of Commerce
N A M College Kallikkandy
Kannur – Kerala - India

2. SWIFT
A worldwide community of financial institutions to
provide communications solutions to enable inter-
operability between its members, their market
infrastructures and their end-user communities
Messaging network to securely transmit
information and instructions through a
standardized system of codes
Industry-owned cooperative supplying secure
messaging services and interface software to
different kinds of financial institutions throughout
the world
Provide reliable facilities for exchange of financial
messages all over the world

3. Industry-owned limited liability cooperative society set up
under Belgian Law and controlled by its member banks
(including central banks) and other financial institutions
Supply secure messaging services and interface software, to
contribute to greater automation of financial transaction
processes and to provide a forum for financial institutions
to address issues of common concern in the area of
financial communication services.
Messaging services are provided to banks, broker/dealers and
investment managers, as well as to market infrastructures
in payments, treasury, securities and trade

4. • SWIFT was founded in Brussels in 1973 under the
leadership of its inaugural CEO Carl Reuterskiold,
supported by 239 banks of fifteen countries.
• Being a communication network, the first message
was sent in 1977
• During 2014, it has more than 10,800 live users from
more than 200 countries and territories and has
communicated over 5.6 billion messages

5. The basic objectives of SWIFT are –
• To provide low-cost, competitive financial processing and
communication services of the highest security and
reliability to its members
• To contribute significantly to the commercial success of its
members through greater automation of the end-to-end
financial transaction process, based on its leading expertise
in message processing and financial standards setting
• To act as an international open forum for the world's
financial institutions to address industry-level threats,
issues and opportunities.
• To Employ and recruit the best people, invest in the most
beneficial resources, and become a leading global
organization respected for its professionalism,
effectiveness, vision and management.

6. Services Offered by SWIFT
• Applications—SWIFT connections enable access to a variety of
applications which include real-time instruction matching for
treasury and forex transactions, banking market Infrastructure
for processing payment instructions between the banks, and
securities market infrastructure for processing clearing and
settlement instructions for payments, securities, forex, and
derivatives transactions.
• Business Intelligence —SWIFT has introduced dashboards
(control panel) and reporting utilities which enable the clients to
get a dynamic, real-time view of monitoring the messages,
activity, trade flow, and reporting.
These reports enable filtering based on region, country, message
types, and related parameters.

7. • Compliance Services — Aimed at services around financial
crime compliance, SWIFT offers reporting and utilities like
Know Your Customer (KYC), Sanctions, and Anti-Money
Laundering, funding for terrorist operations etc.
• Messaging, Connectivity, and Software Solutions —The core
of SWIFT business resides in providing a secure, reliable, and
scalable network for the smooth movement of messages.
Through its various messaging hubs, software, and network
connections, SWIFT offers multiple products and services
which enable its end clients to send and receive transactional
messages.

8. Who Uses SWIFT?
• In the beginning, SWIFT founders designed the network to
facilitate communication about Treasury and correspondent
transactions only. At present it provides services to the
following:
• Banks,
• Brokerage Institutes and Trading Houses
• Securities Dealers
• Asset Management Companies
• Clearing Houses
• Depositories
• Exchanges
• Corporate Business Houses
• Treasury Market Participants and Service Providers
• Foreign Exchange and Money Brokers

9. Operations of SWIFT in India
S.W.I.F.T. User Group is formed in India with the Chairman IBA
as the Chairperson and the Chief General Manager-in-
Charge, Department of Information Technology, Reserve
Bank of India as the Alternate Chairperson. Currently there
are 92 institutions comprising of banks, brokers and
dealers, central depositories and clearing organisations,
who are the user members of S.W.I.F.T. in India :
• Members 48
• Sub-Members 36
• Brokers & Dealers 1
• Central Depositories and Clearing 1
• Non Shareholding Banks 5
• Representative Offices 1
• Total 92