Swift, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, says it expects to deliver a 57% price reduction on its messaging services by the end of 2015. This exceeds its original target of a 50% price reduction set out in 2010 as part of its Swift2015 strategy.

Price reduction is part of Swift's ethos of prioritising usage of its messaging platform rather than profit, maintaining its cooperative spirit and transparency, while reducing barriers for smaller users. Its price reduction efforts started in 1996 with a 30% decrease in messaging prices. Since 2001, these efforts have been greatly enhanced through formal price reduction commitments.

Swift's new five-year plan, Swift2020, includes a price reduction programme that begins in January 2016, calling for a 30 to 45 per cent reduction by the end of 2020.

Francis Vanbever, CFO at SWIFT, adds, "Strong traffic growth, rigorous cost controls and innovative pricing schemes have allowed us to overachieve on the pricing pledge we set back in 2010, enabling us to pass on significant savings to our customers. Depending on market conditions, we are committed to a new price challenge of lowering prices between 30% and 45% by 2020, whilst also addressing our non-messaging services and products with innovative and targeted price actions. We are confident that these price reduction targets can be met without compromising the aggressive investment plan outlined in our 2020 strategy."