SWIFT announced at Sibos that it has delivered early on its commitment to reduce its messaging prices by 30-50 percent between 2010 and 2015, a goal the company set as part of its SWIFT2015 strategy in 2010.

"By now SWIFT has achieved the high-end of its commitment, delivering a 50 percent reduction in messaging prices to the community," says SWIFT Chairman Yawar Shah. "SWIFT2015 was a bold plan that challenged SWIFT to continue investing in the security, reliability and growth of its core messaging platform, while delivering new and innovative solutions. As a part of that strategy, SWIFT pledged to reduce its messaging prices between 30-50 percent over a five year period. I am pleased to announce that SWIFT has overachieved at the high-end of that target one year ahead of schedule."

SWIFT started its price reduction efforts in 1996 with a 30 percent decrease in messaging prices. Since 2001, these efforts have been greatly enhanced through formal price reduction commitments and tighter cost controls. The 2010 price commitment is the third strategic cycle of substantial price reductions SWIFT has implemented, resulting in an 88 percent decrease in SWIFT messaging prices during that time period. The two previous strategic pricing plans committed SWIFT to a 50 percent decrease in messaging prices over the five-year life of each plan. These commitments were both met on time.

SWIFT CFO 

Francis Vanbever, CFO at SWIFT said, "Even though we met our pricing objective for SWIFT2015 early, our customers will continue to benefit from the discount mechanisms we have in place for fixed fee and high volume bilateral connections. We fully expect this programme to have a positive impact in 2015 for the community as a whole."

A new pricing strategy will be established as part of SWIFT's next strategic five-year plan, SWIFT2020. Vanbever adds, "We anticipate that SWIFT will continue on its price reduction path, but the new pricing strategy will depend on investment plans and priorities. In the meantime, targeted pricing actions to meet specific competitive situations will be considered as opportunities arise."

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CTMfile take: At least there is some good news for the banks in the increasingly competitive global transaction banking business. No wonder, though, that corporates are going to continue to press for reduced prices for their transaction banking services.