Risk and Regulation,technology,Transaction Banking,

Risk and Regulation,technology,Transaction Banking,

SWIFT announces that 46 new corporates in Asia Pacific have joined the co-operative in 2016.

Today, more than 1,700 corporate groups are on SWIFT globally, with 46% of these corporate groups being Fortune 500 companies, whilst 66% of these corporate groups are small capitalisation companies. In Asia Pacific, adoption has doubled as compared to two years ago, since the focus on the initiative was launched in the region, where 22 Asian corporates joined in 2014.

SWIFT provides a single, secure communication channel for corporates to connect with their local or global banks as well as with other financial institutions. Once connected to SWIFT, corporates are able to use a single security setup, using a uniform financial messaging standard to communicate with over 11,000 financial service providers in 200+ countries, with the highest levels of encryption and authentication technology available. And since the go-live of SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi) initiative in February 2017, a new world for corporates has emerged. Corporates can expect faster payments with transparent fees and traceable transactions embedded with full remittance data.

Alain Raes, Chief Executive, APAC & EMEA says, “The corporates who joined SWIFT in 2016 are quite stunning examples of how corporate treasurers and CFOs across the region are responding to the evolving challenges they face. Corporates today face operational risks in compliance, FX, technological disruption and it is absolutely pertinent that they stay ahead of the curve with cash visibility at their fingertips to make timely and intelligent decisions.”

Tsutomu Mannari, General Manager of Finance & Accounting at Nifco Inc, comments, “Since we introduced our new treasury management system, we have been receiving MT940 messages at the head office from banks of our overseas subsidiaries globally; at a scale of 85% across our 250 bank accounts. This enables us to identify the dynamics of our bank accounts by currency and by legal entity on a daily basis. Our partnership with SWIFT allows our business to become more efficient and transparent operationally. We look forward to leveraging more SWIFT tools to optimise our asset-liability balance in foreign currencies, minimise FX and funding risks and streamline our balance sheet in addition to preventing internal frauds.”

Jung Kook Moon, Chief Finance Officer of Pan-Pacific Co., Ltd shares that, “We have been scaling up our business and operations in order to support our global strategy of expansion. Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of our treasury operations is crucial – and connecting to SWIFT is instrumental as it provides us with a single access point to all of our banking partners, giving us day-to-day visibility on cash, whilst increasing our liquidity and managing FX risks. After a successful implementation in China, we plan to connect to SWIFT in more ASEAN countries, namely Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar later this year.”

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker