Standard Chartered Bank announced today that it has been awarded the SWIFT Bank Readiness Certification. This certification reiterates the Banks commitment to making it easier for clients to join SWIFT and help them improve their working capital management.
With the visibility of bank readiness being one of the barriers to SWIFT adoption, Standard Chartered proactively took a client centric approach and actively collaborated with SWIFT and other global banks to develop a certification program that would assist corporates to compare the SWIFT capabilities of their banking partners.
SWIFT Bank Readiness Certification programme is a significant step towards providing corporates with transparency around the SWIFT capabilities of their banks,” says Elie Lasker, Head of Corporate Market, SWIFT. “Standard Chartered has played a key role in voicing client feedback and actively collaborated with SWIFT to make this programme happen. Their addition to the bank ready list recognises their client centric approach and ongoing commitment to improving corporate access over SWIFT.
There has been a sustained growth in the number of companies adopting SWIFT globally. This growth momentum is expected especially across Asia, Middle East and Africa. After the financial crisis, the Bank witnessed a significant increase in interest in SWIFT, where many clients began approaching the Bank for advice in the early stages of their planning.
SWIFT provides corporates with a single, global, highly secure and standardised gateway to their banking partners. It enables corporates to benefit from a reduction in costs and operational risk, enhanced process efficiencies and optimised cash and liquidity management.
Thomas Wiles, Head of Channel Management at Standard Chartered Bank, said, Standard Chartered is a firm proponent of open standards and corporate access to SWIFT. The SWIFT Bank Readiness Certification is an affirmation of our commitment to transparency and to supporting clients desire to communicate via SWIFT. This certification allows Standard Chartered to further enhance our SWIFT for Corporates offering and continue to provide client-centric solutions, said Wiles.
SWIFT is an integral component of Standard Chartereds electronic channels portfolio and the Bank had long supported SWIFT for Corporates through representation on SWIFT boards/committees, industry initiatives and by promoting the development of communication standards such as the ISO20022 XML for financial corporate-to-bank messaging.
(LB)