ABSTRACT
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, SWIFT, has existed for 40 years.1 In this time, it has significantly reconfigured the core structure of transaction banking and securities businesses, becoming the most prominent standards body in the global banking community with standards that permeate every corner of international financial messaging. Anyone who has been involved in the transfer of an international cross-currency payment in business or with family and friends living abroad has benefited from SWIFT. Performing at 99.999 percent reliability (referred to as SWIFT’s “Five Nines culture”) the cooperative has provided remarkable dependability and efficiency in the financial services infrastructure, and produced – as noted in its signature storyline – “the world’s most trusted third party secure network.”
