Distributed architecture

Allocation of countries to the two messaging zones

As previously announced, in September 2007, the SWIFT Board of Directors approved the implementation of a distributed architecture for SWIFT's messaging services. Distributed architecture will partition messaging into two zones, the European messaging zone and the Trans-Atlantic messaging zone, with pairs of Operating Centres that store the traffic for each zone. The implementation of the messaging zones will take place by the end of 2009.

What are the benefits?

The new distributed architecture will improve resilience, add capacity, control long-term average message costs, and alleviate European data protection concerns. The storage and processing of relevant messages exchanged between European correspondents will indeed be confined to European operating centres only. The impact on customers will be minimal. The distributed architecture principles ensure that the transition to the new architecture is as transparent as possible and that the rich functionality of SWIFT's current messaging services remains unchanged.

How will distributed architecture work?

The distributed architecture programme will be implemented in two phases. Phase one will deliver an additional Operating Centre in Europe and a Control Centre in Asia Pacific. In order to enhance operations and resilience, and address European data protection concerns, messaging will be partitioned into two zones:

• the European messaging zone
• the Trans-Atlantic messaging zone

By the end of 2009, when the new architecture goes into effect, each country will be assigned to one of these zones. All the Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) in a country will belong to the same zone, and interfaces will connect to zones at the BIC8 level, based on the country code in the BIC8.

Which zone has each country been assigned to?

The initial zone allocations were communicated to SWIFT's National Member Group Chairpersons in February 2008 and were defined as follows:

• Countries in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and other territories and dependencies of the European Union or associated with EU countries, have been assigned to, and must remain in, the European zone.
• The United States and its territories have been assigned to, and must remain in, the Trans-Atlantic zone.
• The default allocation for all other countries was to the Trans-Atlantic zone. These countries could, however, request to be re-assigned to the European zone.

Customers had the opportunity to address zone changes to SWIFT by 30 April 2008. Now that all change requests have been received, we are in a position to publish the final zone allocation status.

To view the final zone allocation table, please see tip 2157180 (requires login).

For more information about the new distributed architecture, please see tip 2142124 - Frequently Asked Questions about distributed architecture (requires login).

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