Price and cost reduction featured heavily in today's opening plenary with much emphasis on the co-operative nature of Swift. But all of this discussion is set against the backdrop of - not to put too fine a point on it - bank survival. And the current SEPA
challenge is not making the situation any easier. One bank today told me that their SEPA platform cost tens of millions of euro and is currently supporting only a few thousand transactions a day. Unless something changes, survival could well become the most
pertinent question for the industry. Lazaro told us today that "Swift is the master of change". SEPA is certainly one initiative that could benefit from Swift's power of change.