Swift launches financial messaging platform in India

Global financial information messaging platform Swift today launched a domestic service in a joint venture with the country's top lenders.
"This is the first time in any market that we have formed a joint venture with local players and are offering a completely different platform," Swift India Chief Executive Saqib Sheikh said.
The company does provide solutions for the domestic market in many countries, but those are carried out using the platform used for international messaging and there is no exclusive platform like the one it has made now, he said.
Sheikh said the domestic players and the regulator demanded a local solution, and the global company, which already serves 212 countries, started the process of entering India in 2011 with these requirements in mind.

Swift India will be having two data centres locally and plans to operationalise the service by end of the year, he said, adding, this takes care of the concern of the local players.
"The Swift platform will integrate the entire financial messaging requirements which a bank or a corporate may have including NEFT, RTGS etc," he said, adding that Swift will not play the role of clearing and settlement.

Sheikh, however, did not disclose the investment going into the inititaive or the location of the two data centres.
He said that Swift, an international cooperative specialising in financial messaging, will hold 55 per cent equity in the joint venture, while the rest will be equally divided between the nine partner banks which include the country's largest lender SBI and the largest from the private sector space ICICI Bank, among others.

However, in the board, the domestic lenders will have more representation than Swift, he added.
Swift has been serving the country's financial institutions since December 1991 and currently handles up to three-lakh transactions per day from the country, he said, adding that the country currently stands at 25th position globally by volumes.