More than 70 guests attended the official opening ceremony, including HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium and Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia.

Established in March 2013, the SWIFT Kuala Lumpur Corporate Services Centre currently offers a wide range of support and services to SWIFT around the globe, including IT development, qualification testing, business operations, accounting and finance analysis as well as transactional functions. The centre has steadily grown to around 140 staff and is expected to hire 60 new positions over the next 12 months.

SWIFT's expanded facility will significantly enhance its capabilities, particularly in customer support and services including Consulting, Compliance, Reference Data and Business Intelligence. The new office space occupies one floor in the office complex in Bangsar South, and will be able to accommodate around 110 staff in a flexible workspace environment.

Christophe Michel, Head of the Kuala Lumpur Corporate Services Centre, SWIFT, says: "Our Kuala Lumpur Corporate Services Centre is essential in providing round-the-clock support to our customers and our offices across the world, and we are proud to have a hub of exceptional skills and talents here. We believe our new space will see us through to fulfilling our ambitions to have a large, high performing team to prepare for further growth in the region."

Alain Raes, Chief Executive, Asia Pacific and EMEA, SWIFT, comments: "This office expansion is another milestone reflecting our strong belief in continued growth in the Asia Pacific region. It shows our commitment to providing greater service and world-class support to the global SWIFT community.

SWIFT is a key infrastructure within the Malaysian financial system. Over the past two decades, SWIFT has been providing the local community, including banks and corporates, with a highly secure and reliable network to exchange electronic financial messages. Most notably, SWIFT has been selected as a connectivity channel for Malaysia's high value payment system, the new RENTAS (Real-time Electronic Transfer of Funds and Securities System), which will significantly enhance the efficiency of payments and fund flows of the financial sector.

SWIFT has been operating in Asia Pacific for over 30 years, starting in Hong Kong and Singapore. Since 2005, SWIFT has opened three additional sales and support offices in Asia, bringing the total number of offices to nine across the region. This includes a Control Centre in Hong Kong and a corporate services hub that opened in Kuala Lumpur in 2013.