Global financial messaging service Swift today formally launched its intra-country operations in India, promising to ease information transmission for banks and corporate treasuries.
The company launched with 13 clients, including 12 banks and one corporate (TCS).
"We are bringing the depth of our capabilities acquired over many years into India," Swift India Chairman M V Nair told reporters here.
Swift has been present in the country since 1993, but was offering only cross-border or international services. It has now gone live with a domestic service, he said.
The not-for-profit Swift's platform will integrate the entire financial messaging requirements which a bank or a corporate may have, including NEFT and RTGS, and is an alternative to the SFMS system which has not taken off as desired.
Hinting that the company will deliver the service at an affordable cost, Nair said that rather than the expensive dollar payments, local invoicing will be in rupees and will be "comparable to other services" in the country.
In a first for the over 200 countries that it operates in, Swift has teamed up with nine local banks and is operating here as a joint venture with a majority ownership.
The Reserve Bank was keen to get Swift to serve the domestic sector too and gave it a special licence, Nair said.
As per the RBI's clearance, it is an 'Indian' company, which is operating here and the domestic data bank is residing within the country's boundaries in two dedicated data centres, he said.
"We strongly believe infrastructure is key to financial inclusion and sustainable growth. The messaging services will support and strengthen the infrastructure for financial transactions," RBI Executive Director Chandan Sinha was quoted as saying in a statement issued by Swift.
