SWIFT today said it has seen a 9.4% growth in worldwide messaging traffic YTD in 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.
The increase compares to a slower 2009, when the cooperative posted negative growth for the first time in its history.
Total growth in payments was 8.1% in July compared to last year. In securities, the growth was 10.5% over that period; and in treasury, 14.1%. Messaging as a whole when calculated by region was up as well. EMEA posted growth of 8.7%, while Asia-Pacific and the Americas grew by 11.2% and 10.6%, respectively.
Weve had strong growth in every segmentand every market, Chris Church, CEO of the Americas for SWIFT, said at a press conference this morning.
On average, SWIFT processes 17.4 million messages globally per day, amounting to more than 4 billion messages per year.
Meanwhile, Brett Lancaster, managing director for the Americas at SWIFT, commented on the specter of regulation that has caused hesitancy among financial institutions. Lancaster said that while cost remains a relevant factor in doing business, it has been eclipsed by the scars of the recession. Because of that, risk management now outweighs cost as the No. 1 priority for institutions.
Lancaster also highlighted SWIFTs pending projects in asset servicing as part of its 2015 strategy. In particular, the project to reform corporate actions in partnership with DTCC is expected to be a major breakthrough in corporate actions efficiency if it can be accomplished by its 2015 deadline. For more about the project, see XBRL: Patch or panacea? Global Custodian, Winter 2010.
SWIFT is also working to build up its consulting and reference data offerings, and is developing electronic trade matching and bilateral collateral management and tri-party repo services.
SWIFT has also partnered with DTCC on a global trade repository for foreign exchange derivatives trades. The pair has been recommended by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) to become the chosen repository in Europe. The two also formed a partnership along with ISO to form a legal entity identifier solution, making it easier to identify counterparties which would have been particularly helpful, SWIFT says, when unwinding the Lehman Brothers after its collapse in 2008.
(CG/CM)