BB seeks SWIFT coop in launching RTGS

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman Wednesday sought SWIFT cooperation in launching RTGS (Real-time Gross Settlement) system in the country's financial sector.

 "We look forward to having SWIFT to play a vital role in the recent initiatives of RTGS in Bangladesh payment system. SWIFT may also consider exploring the inter-bank settlement system," the BB Governor said while addressing the first ever SWIFT Business Forum held in Bangladesh.

Chief Executive (Asia Pacific and EMEA) of the SWIFT Alain Raes said Bangladesh is one of the emerging economies of the world and is on its path to growth and there are many more opportunities in the financial markets.

 "We at SWIFT firmly believe that a cost efficient, reliable and inter-operable market infrastructure can contribute to a sustainable financial system in Bangladesh," he said.

He said the main objectives of the SWIFT haven't changed over the years to make a robust financial market with foolproof network as practices internationally.

He said a total of 56 financial institutions are now sending more than 3.5 million messages over the SWIFT network in Bangladesh to around the world.

"Growth in these past years remained in the double digits. Bangladesh was ranked 16th in Asia-Pacific region  for out-ward financial transaction traffic and 14th for in-ward financial traffic," he said, adding that the traffic grew 32.7 per cent in 2013 from the previous year.

The BB Governor said led by the then Arab Bangladesh Bank Limited, presently AB Bank Ltd and a few ambitious commercial banks started the operation of SWIFT in Bangladesh financial system in 1994. Later on, more commercial banks in Bangladesh including the central bank started using SWIFT for their day to day payment, settlement activities through SWIFT in 2002. At present 56 commercial banks are members of SWIFT in our banking industry.

SWIFT provides the proprietary communications platform, products and services that allow connecting and exchanging reliable financial information with utmost security. It also acts as the catalyst that brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and consider solutions to issues of mutual interests.

As a modern payment system SWIFT is playing a crucial role for economic development of any country. In payment system, SWIFT is working with nearly 80 clearing and settlement systems carrying over 21 million payments related messages every day. SWIFT is also putting all-out efforts to combat money laundering activities complying with the best international practices in the global environment.

Speaking on the occasion, SWIFT Bangladesh Chairperson Anis A Khan said Bangladesh's economy has shown a strong momentum with GDP growth rate at 5-6 per cent per annum over the last few years and the country also ranked as the 37th largest economy in the world in 2013 by International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"The connectivity of all banks under one platform will undoubtedly bring more benefits for both customers and the financial industry players in the form of fast and cost-effective service deliveries," he added.

Managing Director and CEO of Eastern Bank Ali Reza Iftekhar, Deputy Managing Director of Sonali Bank Ltd Bhanu Roy and Head of Project and New Initiative of Standard Chartered Bank Arunangshu Dutta, among others, spoke on the occasion.