The significance of the announcement at SIBOS 2013 that SWIFT had signed agreements with BELLIN, Opus Capita and Access Pay to connect to SWIFT, via Alliance Lite2, to allow them to give their customers direct access to all the SWIFT members is starting to become clear. 

The infrastructuree

SWIFT have developed an approach using Alliance Lite2 to enable all cloud based ASPs (Alternative Service Provider) to connect to their network and enable their users to access SWIFT direct, see figure. Essentially the cloud based service providers have embedded SWIFT access into their TMS service.

Alliance Lite2 with ASP providers

Source & Copyright©2014 -  SWIFT

The ASP service is hosted in the cloud, and the end-customer typically accesses their services through a web browser or via a direct link to their TMS. All the corporate TMS users have to do is register on SWIFT’s Score closed user group. (To be eligible for SCORE, corporates must be listed on a regulated stock exchange of a country which is member of the Financial Action Task Force.) 

The ASP application exchanges files with the Lite2 multi-BIC AutoClient which forms part of the  ASP Lite2 Bridge. The ASP Lite2 Bridge provides a secure VPN connection between the ASP application running in the ASP’s cloud and the Alliance Lite2 Server running at SWIFT’s Operating Centre. The Alliance Lite2 Server hosts the BIC of the end-customer and provides the required access to SWIFT. Moreover, if required, the end-customer can access the Alliance Lite2 Server directly via a web  browser over the Internet for manual operations.

This cloud-to-cloud linking is a vital piece in how SWIFT plan to integrate all corporates into the SWIFT network. Signing one ASP provider rather than 100s of separate corporate treasury departments is far easier and quicker. The direct links won’t disappear as some corporates will not want total dependence on their TMS provider. 

Cloud-to-cloud

Over the last 2-3 years cloud based services have been integrating and partnering increasingly. The partnership between Reval and Atlas Risk in October 2013 is just one example. 

SWIFT clearly hope that the cloud-to-cloud vision of that the future will look something like this, with them in the centre, see figure.

SWIFT and cloud-to-cloud connectivity

Source & Copyright©2012 -  J&W Associates  

Many suppliers and TMS providers have yet to sign up for this approach, particularly SAP with their Financial Services Network (FS), Wall Street and SuGard. Nevertheless, the move to cloud-to-cloud linking seems inevitable. The only question, a very big question, is, what will the business arrangements be?

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CTMfile take: For corporate treasurers cloud-to-cloud linking raises several important questions: Should your SWIFT link be integrated with the TMS provider or separate? How good will your service provider be in integrating with other services? Do you want all your services separate and purchased direct?