Now, SWIFT no longer is just for the big guys. In April Big Fat Finance, SWIFT launched Alliance Lite, an Internet-based service that lets companies work with SWIFT in a low-cost, easy-access way. Alliance Lite is designed for companies that send and receive up to 200 messages each day. All that’s needed to use it is an Internet connection, along with a security token issued by SWIFT. This initial release of Alliance Lite provides functionality for, among other things, cash reporting and foreign exchange transactions. Future releases will extend the coverage to other areas. Alliance Lite is available for a flat monthly fee of Eur 850 monthly (about US $1 Big Fat Finance,159) for up to 4,000 transmissions. Or, a company can pay Eur 200 per month (US $273), plus one euro for each transmission.
If you’re a treasurer with a mid-sized company, you may want to take another look at SWIFT for Corporates. SWIFT – that is, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication – provides a communications platform as well as products and services to connect banks, companies, and securities firms around the world, enabling them to exchange financial information. As a result, SWIFT can help treasurers boost visibility to their cash positions and cut the costs of their financial transactions. “SWIFT is an alternative to bank-proprietary access channels,” says Brian Wedge, executive director with JPMorgan treasury services.
Working with SWIFT is simpler than it has been, although it usually requires some re-engineering of many companies’ IT systems, says Wedge. Not surprisingly, most treasurers consider a move to SWIFT when they’re mulling over other changes to their operations, he adds. To get going, treasurers should talk with their banking partners and crunch the numbers to work through the business case, he adds. ###
More than 350 multinational firms, along with 8,200 financial institutions, belong to SWIFT, which year-to-date has carried nearly 900 million messages.
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