8 December 2023
Under the Radar: How is Swift facilitating cross-border transactions and ensuring interoperability of CBDCs?
Messaging tools are much needed not just between individuals like you and me, but also between banks and financial institutions to support global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world.
Founded in 1973, our guest Swift is a global member-owned cooperative and also the world’s leading provider of financial messaging services.
While it does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, Swift enables its community of users to communicate securely and exchange standardised financial messages in a reliable way.
So far, its platform, products and services connect over 11,500 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories.
The cooperative reported that close to 90% (89%) of cross-border transactions processed on its network reached recipient banks within an hour, ahead of speed targets set out by the Financial Stability Board. How is that achieved and what does it mean for Swift looking ahead?
Meanwhile, Swift also developed a Central Bank Digital Currency solution that interlinks CBDC networks and existing payment systems for cross-border transactions. But what wider implications will this have on the financial industry?
On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Sharon Toh, Head of ASEAN Region, Swift.

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Listen To Her Previous Podcasts:

23 September 2020
Mind Your Business: Mounting cyberattacks call for banks to collaborate and strengthen their defense
SWIFT and BAE Systems Applied Intelligence have jointly released a report titled ‘Follow the Money’ which describes the complex web of money mules, front companies and cryptocurrencies that criminals use to siphon funds from the financial system after a cyberattack. In Mind Your Business, Howie Lim spoke to Sharon Toh, Head of ASEAN at Swift to get her insights as mounting cyberattacks calls for banks to collaborate and strengthen their defense.

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22 August 2019
Making Global Payments in Seconds A Reality
ASEAN is a 2.6 trillion US dollar market of over 622 million people. Lucrative opportunities abound and SWIFT aims to cash in via the instant payments services avenue. But as the name suggests, they better be able to make it fast! In fact, SWIFT recognises the key challenges in the cross-border payments space and recently embarked on a 17-banks-across-APAC-Europe-and-North America-wide trial of its instant payment services. The results are encouraging.To tell us more is Sharon Toh, Head of ASEAN at SWIFT.

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