Brussels, 5 June 2012 – Swift, the secure financial messaging provider for more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 210 countries, today announced a new peak day – 31 May 2012 – of more than 20 million messages in a single day. This peak was driven by payments messages of 10.12 million globally and a peak day in the Americas of 4.29 million messages, which is a 15.3% increase over average daily volumes YTD May 2012, for the region.
“Reaching this milestone does not come as a surprise. We have seen volumes edging upwards since the beginning of the year. Over the last five years, total message volumes have almost doubled, continually increasing year on year from 2007 with the exception of 2009 when there was a dip from which we have now fully recovered,” said Lázaro Campos, CEO, Swift.
Swift’s business continues to grow as more financial institutions, banks and corporate members around the world appreciate the benefits of its low-cost, highly-secure and resilient international messaging services. Continued growth demonstrates that Swift is uniquely placed within the international financial community to enhance efficiency and performance, reduce risk and lower costs for its members.
As well as the secure international financial messaging services Swift has responded to the needs of the financial community by introducing new, value-added services, such as personal digital identity, sanctions screening and enhanced services for corporates and international banks. Most recently, Swift introduced the Swift Index, which is a unique proprietary fact-based index that can be used to derive an early indication of the short-term evolution of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the OECD countries, an indicator widely used by analysts, economists and decision makers within financial institutions, corporates, government institutions and academia.
“Being at the heart of the international financial community Swift has unrivalled insight into markets. This insight allows Swift to predict volumes and even act as an economic barometer – the Swift Index. The Swift Index is forecasting a modest 2.1% growth in Q2 2012 compared to Q2 2011 of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the OECD countries”, added Campos.
About Swift Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 210 countries. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, please refer to www.swift.com or contact our PR agency:
Swift
Simon Bale
Tel. +32 2 655 3377
pressoffice@swift.com
