For immediate release:
SWIFT announces 2006 rebate on all messaging
Strong financial results provide scope for at least a 5% rebate on top of July price reductions and free hardware security modules for Phase 2
Sibos, SYDNEY, 9 October 2006 — SWIFT announced today that customers will receive a rebate for the fifth year running in addition to previously announced price reductions. The 2006 rebate will be at least 5% amounting to EUR 20 million in total and, for the first time, will apply to all messaging services: FIN, FileAct and InterAct.
SWIFT will have rebated EUR 116 million in total and reduced overall messaging prices by 50% for the 2002-2006 period.
Francis Vanbever, Chief Financial Officer, SWIFT, commented, “Strong 13.4% traffic growth year-to-date and a two-year programme to reduce expenses structurally by 10% have enabled us to decrease messaging prices significantly. The rebate is on top of price reductions introduced in 2005 and 2006 that bring a recurring annual savings in excess of EUR 60 million to the SWIFT community. We are confident that strategic investments for our SWIFT2010 initiatives and continued price reductions will strengthen our competitive edge and bring greater value to the SWIFT community.”
The following price reductions and commercial actions are applicable since July 2006:
- Price reductions on FIN messages range from 4% to 30%, resulting in an 8.2% decrease in average message price and benefiting all segments of the SWIFT community.
- For intra-institution traffic, new high volume discounts for large users range from 20% to 36%.
- FIN-Copy and messages to market infrastructures have been reduced by 5.6%.
- A 10% reduction on InterAct prices for International traffic further benefits market infrastructures users.
- Free Hardware Security Modules for the entire SWIFT community will help prepare for SWIFTNet Phase 2, and lower total cost of ownership for smaller users with a total saving of EUR 23 million to the community.
- SWIFTSupport Enhanced is being extended free of charge to users sending more than 0.25% of traffic. This increases systemic coverage from a current 50% to 75% of SWIFT traffic.
The final rebate percentage will be determined in December and credited in January 2007.
Note to Editors :
About SWIFT
SWIFT is the industry-owned co-operative supplying secure, standardised messaging services and interface software to nearly 8,000 financial institutions in 206 countries and territories. SWIFT members include banks, broker-dealers and investment managers. The broader SWIFT community also encompasses corporates as well as market infrastructures in payments, securities, treasury and trade. Over the past ten years, SWIFT message prices have been reduced over 80%, and system availability approaches 5x9 reliability — 99.999% of uptime.
For more information about this press release, please refer to www.swift.com or contact the SWIFT press office:
Kara Condon
SWIFT
Sydney mobile: +61 (0)448 979 080
Email: kara.condon@swift.com