SWIFT Business Forum - 10th Edition

Wrap-up report: looking to the future of payments

The SWIFT Business Forum Romania - the annual event of the Romanian financial and banking community - took place this year on Thursday 24 October, at the Hilton Athenee Palace Hotel, . The event brought together 170 participants from credit institutions, central , payments institutions, financial investment companies, issuers of financial instruments, IT solutions providers, consultants, corporate customers and trading companies.

Opening the SWIFT Business Forum, Radu Gratian Ghetea, SWIFT National Member Group Chairperson and President of Honour of Romanian Association of , highlighted that the event had reached its 10th edition and has become a true tradition, expected each year by the Romanian financial community.

Before the business forum got underway, the audience held a moment of silence to remember André Boico, a much-appreciated professional, with an exceptional career who gave many years of service to the SWIFT community. He was an example to follow and a true friend of the Romanian community.

Radu Gratian Ghetea then highlighted some of the key takeaways from Sibos 2019, such as the current changes in technology driving new developments as the Instant Payments and gpi fast adoption, the challenges and opportunities brought about by new regulation, the planned ISO 20022 migration project, and the increased cyber security requirements.

Sergiu Oprescu, President of the Romanian Association of Banks’ Board of Directors, talked next about how Romania has been taking steps to develop and consolidate its banking market, in the overall European context. He referred to Romanian banking industry’s priorities, highlighting that these priorities actually overlap - and significantly for that matter - with European issues, namely: lending, digitalisation, banking education, culture and conduct.

Matthieu de Heering, Head of Central & Eastern Europe, SWIFT, spoke about important achievements such as gpi, financial crime compliance, the Customer Security Programme, and he explained how SWIFT’s strategy has been updated to take into consideration that the pace of technological change and innovation is faster than ever, bringing new competitive challenges to the community and SWIFT.

The SWIFT Business Forum continued with a keynote speech on the ISO 20022 migration. Tanja Van Sterthem, Consultant, SWIFT Standards Advisory Team, announced that the migration of cross-border payment traffic to ISO 20022 will start in November 2021, explaining the practical implications of adopting ISO 20022, how SWIFT plans to facilitate the migration and what the benefits are for the Romanian banking community. This community migration, ensuring that the same standard is used end-to end for international payments, will be facilitated by SWIFT and will impact all the SWIFT users.

The EU payments landscape transformation was the subject of the panel discussion moderated by Rodica Tuchila, SWIFT National User Group Chairperson. Changes in consumer behaviours, the move towards instant payments, regulators pushing towards open banking models, compliance pressure and technology disruptions are shaking up the retail, corporate and correspondent banking businesses.

From the perspective of innovation and digitalisation, the payments industry is one of the most dynamic, carrying out a series of projects designed to lead to important structural changes. The payments landscape in Europe is changing at a rapid pace, and the payment industry is facing increasing challenges. Isabelle Olivier, Head of Securities Initiatives & Payment MIs, EMEA, SWIFT, gave the audience an overview of what is happening in the European payments landscape and how all of this is affecting the Romanian market.

Adrian Radu, Director, Head of Clearing and Settlements at , shared his bank’s recent experience of being one of the Instant Payments pioneers in Romania. The Instant Payments system, launched in April this year, was developed by TRANSFOND – the operator of the automated clearing house for interbank commercial payments – in close collaboration with Romanian credit institutions, the and the Romanian Association of Banks. Through the Instant Payments service, banks can deliver 24/7/365 payment services to their customers – both consumers and companies – in less than ten seconds, in a secure environment.

The panel continued with the Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway (ESMIG) project, launched by the European Central Bank for the modernisation of the European payment infrastructure. Razvan Vartolomei, Director of Payments Department, National Bank of Romania, highlighted the major modifications brought by this project, aiming at the independence of the telecommunications network, the improvement of the architecture system, changing the messaging system by switching to ISO 20022 standards and new guarantee mechanisms. Isabelle Olivier spoke about the impact of this project on the EU industry and how SWIFT is supporting the industry for a smooth implementation.

As cyber-attacks continue to evolve and are becoming more frequent and widespread, there is a clear and present danger for SWIFT customers from sophisticated and well-funded threat actor groups. Frank Versmessen, Head of Attestation Compliance and Assurance, SWIFT Customer Security Programme, outlined the evolving cyber security landscape, the methods of attack. He also gave an update on the Customer Security Programme, and explained what customers should do to protect themselves.

Gizem Tansu, Compliance Expert, presented the latest news about SWIFT’s extensive suite of financial crime compliance products, offering effective regulatory compliance, greater transparency, more efficient operations, fraud prevention and control.

The Business Forum ended with a panel discussion - moderated by Marianna Janssen, SWIFT gpi Expert EMEA - on gpi, the SWIFT innovative service transforming the correspondent banking landscape with a new standard for cross-border payments.

Cristian Cengher, Senior Corporate Operations Specialist, Erste Group Bank and Marc Recker, Global Head Market Management, Cash Management, Deutsche Bank, spoke about the significant business value that gpi brings to banks and their customers over time due to the constantly evolving service offering. By embracing SWIFT gpi, financial institutions are now sending and receiving funds quickly and securely to anyone, anywhere in the world, with full transparency over where a payment is at any given moment.

Adrian Radu, Director, Head of Clearing and Settlements, Banca Transilvania, the first gpi live bank in Romania, shared his experience of the gpi implementation, the main challenges and lessons learnt from this experience.

Ioana Guiman, Managing Partner at Allevo presented the company approach and developments in supporting the customers to implement gpi, as it was the CEC Bank’s case, recently became live on gpi. Radu Zanfir, Head of SWIFT Department at CEC Bank, spoke about the implementation project and about the main benefits that gpi brings, in terms of speed, certainty and transparency.

The conclusion of the panel was that SWIFT gpi dramatically improves cross-border payments across the correspondent banking network, and not least for corporates for whom speed, certainty and a smooth international payments experience is an absolute must. To mark the occasion of the 2019 SWIFT Business Forum Romania, SWIFT – via its Corporate Social Responsibility programme – is pleased to provide financial support to SOS Children’s Village Bucharest.

For more details, presentations and pictures from SWIFT Business Forum Romania: https://www.arb.ro/swift-business-forum-romania-editia-a-x-a-2019/