SWIFT says that their Board has approved a new set of messaging price reductions effective from 1 January 2007. Continued strong traffic and revenue performance enables SWIFT to reduce costs for its customers by offering an upfront 6.4 percent reduction on all FIN messaging. The SWIFT Board also raised the 2006 5 percent rebate announced at Sibos, Sydney in October, to 7 percent. The total value of the rebate is MEUR 26 and will be credited to customers in January.
“We are pleased to present our clients with significant price reductions to kick off the New Year,” says Francis Vanbever, the Chief Financial Officer of SWIFT. “This is the third set of significant price reductions in 18 months, representing a cumulative price reduction of more than 20 percent. Between 2001 and 2006, the average price of SWIFT messaging services dropped by 52 percent. SWIFT will also have returned MEUR 122 in rebates to its customers over the same period. If financial prospects remain strong, we are optimistic we can announce additional price reductions from 1 July 2007 to further strengthen our competitive position. The 2006 rebate of 7 percent is based on users’ total messaging invoice for 2006. This is the first time the rebate is based on all SWIFTNet messaging and not just FIN.”
The newly approved 2007 price reductions total MEUR 23 in annual saving for SWIFT’s customers and complement those credited in July which totalled an additional MEUR 34 in annual savings. Customer feedback shows these planned price reductions are a meaningful benefit for the SWIFT community.
“We have achieved the SWIFT Pricing Challenge I, which set the goal in 2001 of reducing overall prices by 50 percent over the 2002-2006 time frame,” adds Leonard H. Schrank, the CEO of SWIFT. “With today’s price reduction, we are now on our way to our new goal of SWIFT Pricing Challenge II, which is to reduce overall prices by a further 50 percent between 2007 and 2011.”