SWIFT Streamlines B2B Payments With Data Portal

Data is critical to the successful operation of any business, but in the age of the Internet of Things and Big Data, many small businesses are often drowning in information without anyway to sort or analyze it.

SWIFT’s latest service hopes to sort out some of the data clutter in the B2B supply chain by automating analysis of payments reference data. Through the launch of a new data delivery channel, SWIFTRef, financial institutions and enterprises alike can more easily evaluate crucial payments reference data in real time. The analysis, SWIFT added, works in harmony with the firm’s existing tools within the reference data suite of services.

“SWIFTRef APIs are paving the way towards flawless payments processing,” said SWIFT’s head of Reference Data Herve Valentin. “SWIFTRef APIs offer financial institutions and corporates a ready-to-go solution that validates or identifies data when needed, against the most accurate SWIFTRef data available at any time.”

According to Valentin, users of the new interface can reduce their costs and risk thanks to integrated validation for BIC and IBAN. Not only does this introduce time-saving automation into the business process, it provides a higher quality of data, reports said.

Currently, there are 12 SWIFTRef interfaces available for various industry identifiers, bank codes and settlement instructions. The company also announced plans to roll out a new directory, to be called Entity Plus, that will aid businesses and financial institutions with regulatory reporting.

This is the latest tool unveiled by SWIFT, which, late last year, announced a service to aid banks’ compliance with the Know Your Customer rules and increase their transparency in the form of another registry. Despite these solutions, experts say SWIFT has a long way to go. Recent figures from SWIFT CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt said that while 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies are connected to SWIFT, that number should be closer to 90 percent. But, due to a lack of standardization and the KYC regulations, as well as new tax regulations, many corporations deem SWIFT unnecessary and too disruptive.