SWIFT, the financial messaging provider for more than 10,000 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 212 countries and territories, today announced that a new Asia Pacific corporate hub would be established across two locations - Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

In Kuala Lumpur, SWIFT is creating an entirely new corporate services centre, complementing similar centres of SWIFT in the US and Europe. The centre will focus on services such as IT development, qualification testing, support, finance, human resources and operational functions. The new centre is expected to employ 100 staff by 2015. In the short term, a management structure will be put in place, and local hiring will start by the end of 2012.

In Singapore, SWIFT already has a presence, staffed by SWIFT Asia Pacific commercial team members as well as Standards and other marketing experts who have global roles. As part of the new corporate hub strategy, SWIFT intends to increase its existing global marketing presence in Singapore over the next three years. Separately, there will be new hires for commercial functions in Singapore and elsewhere in the region to support regional growth.

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This new hub demonstrates how SWIFT really intend to dominate the corporate to financial institutions' connectivity by making it easier - with local staff, providing new technical support - with SWIFT Alliance Lite 2, and with, hopefully, lower prices.