Swift announced last year it required those using its messaging systems to meet a set standard of security. The first deadline to attest that steps have been taken, but without the need to have met full compliance, was December 31.
Since the deadline, the company has disclosed that 89% of its customers had attested to the mandatory levels. These customers represent 99% of all the financial messages sent along its network. And since Swift reported seeing 7.2 billion messages sent during 2017, an average of 28.14 million messages a day, it is not an inconsiderable number.
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| James Richardson, Bottomline Technologies |
James Richardson, head of market development, risk and fraud, at Bottomline Technologies, says the move has been well received in the most part, adding: “Introducing the controls has created a new minimum standard. For some it will require a lot of work to meet this standard. There are 11,000 companies on Swift that need to be brought up to speed.”
Richardson says Swift’s customers are divided into three distinct groups.
“There are splits between companies as to the levels they are at.