SWIFT says the migration from the its store-and-forward network to SWIFTNet began as planned on 15 August with the activation of SWIFTNet FIN. The following day, two customers, one in Hong Kong and one in Belgium, were successfully sending live FIN messages over SWIFTNet.
“This effectively marks the start of the SWIFTNet migration,” says Neal Campbell, SWIFTNet FIN migration manager. “The remainder of 2002 will be spent bringing other early adopters onto SWIFTNet FIN and preparing all other customers for migration in 2003 and 2004.”
By end of August 2002, three additional early adopters are expected to have migrated to SWIFTNet FIN, with SWIFT staff supporting each customer on-site. By end of September, a total of 14 early adopters are expected to be actively sending SWIFTNet FIN messages in ‘live’ or ‘test & training’ mode.
The next key date occurs in October this year, with the release of SWIFTAlliance Access/Entry 5.0. New SWIFT customers are expected to switch by December 2002, and existing customers to start no later than February 2003. The migration will be completed by the end of 2004.