Swift to launch new payments data quality service
Swift’s new service set for Q3 2016
Swift will launch Payments Data Quality, a reporting and data analytics service to help financial institutions comply with new international requirements for originator and beneficiary information in payments messages.
The service will be available in Q3 2016 and Swift says it will help banks monitor their compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Recommendation 16 for wire transfers, which was issued in 2012.
Swift says regulatory focus on originator and beneficiary information has “intensified” since the FATF recommendations were issued. A number of jurisdictions have or will enshrine FATF Recommendation 16 in law, thus mandating the inclusion of originator and beneficiary information in payments messages.
It says the new requirements will pose compliance and operational challenges for financial institutions the world over. The lack of standard practices for formatting some originator and beneficiary details, such as addresses and bank account numbers, in financial messages can make data detection by automated systems “difficult”. Many banks maintain multiple payments platforms, “making it hard” to maintain a global, institution-wide overview of payments data quality levels.
Swift says it is “working closely with its community to address these challenges”.
The service
The Payments Data Quality service will check messages using quality verification rules developed by Swift in line with industry practice and in cooperation with its community. The service will offer financial institutions:
- a global overview of quality of originator and beneficiary information in their payments messages;
- analytics to help identify potential risk related to specific countries, counterparties and branches;
- reporting from Swift as a neutral third party to support internal investigations and discussions with counterparties;
- a web-based platform eliminating the need to install, integrate or maintain additional systems.
