HONG KONG: SWIFT, a provider of secure financial messaging service rolls out Payments Data Quality service — designed to provide advanced reporting/data analytics in order to keep financial institutions in international payments compliance.

The newly launched service will enable banks to use the reporting/analytics service to monitor their Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations for wire transfer regulation.

Regulatory focus on originator and beneficiary information has “intensified” since the FATF recommendations were issued.  A number of jurisdictions will preserve FATF Recommendation 16 in law, thus mandating the inclusion of originator and beneficiary information in payments messages.

Industry analysis indicates there is often missing information from the originator and benefactor in the transaction,which makes it more difficult to gather data on. The Payments Data Quality service is created to review messages using quality verification rules developed by SWIFT in a way that benefits financial institutions.

The Payments Data Quality service will check messages using quality verification rules developed by SWIFT in line with industry practice and in cooperation with its community. The service will offer financial institutions, a global overview of quality of originator and beneficiary information in their payments messages, detailed analytics to help them identify potential risk related to specific countries, counterparties and branches, trusted reporting from SWIFT as a neutral third party to support their internal investigations and discussions with their counterparties, a web-based platform eliminating the need to install, integrate or maintain additional systems.

“There is a growing need for improved payments data quality, particularly as it relates to financial crime compliance,” says David Howes, Deputy Head of Financial Crime Compliance, Standard Chartered Bank. “We welcome the collaborative effort SWIFT is putting in place to enable the development and use of industry practice and standards to enhance data quality, transparency and compliance.”