He joins from mobile Voice over IP (VoIP) specialist V4M Group, where he was CEO and founder. Prior to that, Smit was CEO of key SWIFT regional partner Trustlink for five years, following a six-year stint at payment systems provider Perago, where he was founder and executive director. Smit has also spent more than 10 years in a variety of senior IT roles at South African Reserve Bank.

Commenting on his appointment at SWIFT, Smit says: "I am delighted to be taking up this opportunity at SWIFT at such momentous time in the development of our business in Africa South. I look forward to applying my experience of providing mission critical solutions to the financial markets in the region, in order to support our community in constantly improving levels of operational efficiency and capitalising on significant opportunities for growth. In particular, I am excited about what SWIFT can do to further support regional integration projects in Africa."

Christian Sarafidis, Head of Western Europe, Middle East and Africa at SWIFT, comments: "As SWIFT celebrates 30 years of operations in Africa, we are perfectly positioned to support the financial community in the region at all levels in tackling challenges and realizing opportunities. I am convinced that Hugo Smit's experience and well-deserved reputation will make a major contribution as we work with our customers in individual countries and across regional blocs in Africa to help them create the robust, reliable, cost-effective and flexible financial market infrastructures they need to fulfill the potential of their markets going forward. I am very pleased to welcome Hugo on board."