BWI: SWIFT Celebrates Twenty Years of Collaboration with Indian Financial Community

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: SWIFT
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 01:00 PM IST (07:30 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest; Business: Banking & financial services, Business services, Information technology, Media & entertainment, Telecommunications; Technology
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SWIFT Celebrates Twenty Years of Collaboration with Indian Financial Community
Renews commitment to support India's financial infrastructure and its domestic and global ambitions

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Tuesday, October 18, 2011 -- (Business Wire India) -- SWIFT, the member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 9,700 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries, has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of India going live on its network with a series of events that paid tribute to past, present and future milestones.

On 12 October, SWIFT held an Executive Forum in Mumbai that was attended by over forty senior members of the Indian financial community and featured keynotes from Sachin Kandelwal, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, ICICI Home Finance, Ravi Trivedy, Partner in Management Consulting at KMPG Advisory Services India and Patrick de Courcy, Head of Markets Asia Pacific, SWIFT.

The forum was a great opportunity for these leaders to discuss with these experts and each other how the Indian financial sector can work with SWIFT to realise opportunities for growth offered around infrastructure finance, the globalisation of Indian corporations, the growing mid-market enterprise sector and in retail banking, especially in mobile payments and remittances.

"There was a consensus amongst the distinguished speakers and the audience who attended the SWIFT Executive Forum that after 20 years of amazing expansion, development and transformation, the Indian financial sector stands at the threshold of a new era of progress," said Lazaro Campos, Chief Executive Officer, SWIFT during the 20th anniversary celebration that took place on 13 October in Mumbai. "This next transformation will be in the areas of growing Indian domestic markets and capital and greater global presence for the Indian financial community."

SWIFT is committed to continue supporting the development of the Indian financial services market across banking and securities, working both with the private sector and the market infrastructures that are critical to the success of the Indian system.

In particular, as the RBI begins to examine its next generation RTGS system, SWIFT is looking forward to sharing its experience in supporting nearly 70 RTGS systems around the world and thereby partnering with the RBI and the banking community in designing and supporting this next generation system.

"We at SWIFT aim to deepen the support we have been giving to the Indian financial community since 1991 and help realise the goals we have in common with NPCI: to support the development of a financial system in India that is inclusive and based on international standards, offers unparalleled security and reliability and continuously relies on innovative technology and efficient operations to lower the cost of ownership for the industry," says Ian Johnston, Chief Executive, Asia Pacific, SWIFT.

"We understand the need for banks in India to be fully in control of their domestic payment infrastructure, and are looking at different governance models that will support this objective," states Mr. Johnston.

"SWIFT is a classic example of the way in which the world has been made smaller by the information technology," remarked Dr. K. Ramakrishnan, Chief Executive of Indian Bank's Association, in his introductory remarks at the 13 October event. "The interface of Indian Banks with the SWIFT network makes a way for the Indian Banks to march towards a brighter future in international banking."

India went live on the SWIFT network on 2 December 1991, with 37 banks connected. In that year 44,184 messages were sent. Today, there are 94 institutions connected and close to 2 million financial messages are sent annually over SWIFT by India.

About SWIFT

SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 9,700 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries. SWIFT enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. SWIFT also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.



CONTACT DETAILS
Ankita Satija, Bite Communications , +91 9810661739, ankita.satija@bitecommunications.com
Sandra Gavard, Head of Public Relations, Asia Pacific, SWIFT, +65 9760 0355, sandra.gavard@swift.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, BANKING, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, MEDIA, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY

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