Financial messaging and services cooperative SWIFT is making its SWIFTRef global reference data platform available for national reference data collection and maintenance services, officials say.
The SWIFTRef platform is used to collect worldwide payments reference data for use by more than 5,500 financial institutions and 500 corporates globally, officials say. SWIFTRef data helps firms populate international, Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and domestic payment instructions, officials say. It is also used to support regulatory reporting needs.
“As a result of increasing data complexities and stringent regulatory data requirement needs, national authorities face a growing challenge to collect and maintain an accurate central source for national identifiers such as national sort/clearing codes and domestic SEPA/International Bank Account Number (IBAN) data,” according to SWIFT officials. Thus SWIFT offers national and regional communities the features of its global SWIFTRef platform for re-use at a local level.
A key example is the deployment of a UK nationwide, central data infrastructure platform to address the challenge set by European SEPA IBAN only regulation (EC 260/2012), say SWIFT officials.
For a smooth transition for its UK members facing an October 2016 deadline for non-eurozone countries, the Payments Council in the UK decided to provide an automated central IBAN/BIC data collection and maintenance platform, based on SWIFTRef, officials add. The Payments Council service will offer U.K. financial institutions real-time access to accurate IBAN-BIC data of peer banks and allow for easy maintenance of each institution’s IBAN-BIC data.
A similar regional project is the Euro Banking Association (EBA) EURO1/STEP 1 reference data platform, officials say.
“Highly automated and efficient reference data platforms are becoming essential at a local level as regulatory requirements and the shift towards real-time processing, increases the pressure for instant and accurate data,” says Steve Gilderdale, head of new business development, SWIFT in a prepared statement.
Maurice Cleaves, interim CEO of the Payments Council said that while the UK is not a Euro country, it “has a close trading relationship with the eurozone, and so these projects to further integrate and comply with SEPA regulations are vital to the UK.”
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