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Apparently this was the worst of all timings to make the move. Does it make sense at all? You usually leave once the introduced change is thriving and stable, not at kickoff. I suspect there must be something we don’t know. I personally don’t welcome the announcement but am looking forward to understanding who- and when- Tungsten will appoint Luke's successor.

Kudos to Charles Bryant, he is truly a "rain maker" and an expert in his role. I am very happy for his appointment. 

A number of conversations have followed this blog post and revealed additional information that deserves attention. In particular, Luc Meurant—head of banking markets and compliance services at SWIFT—provided me with some clarity on the following key points:

• SWIFT’s decision to develop the software for a KYC registry platform follows a precise and explicit request from its members. 

• Financial institutions are missing a robust solution that ensures a commonly shared KYC registry for their correspondent banking operations. No market solutions so far have satisfied this request. 

• The mission to cover transaction banking services positions SWIFT as a player of reference for any software development in this space. 

• The KYC registries under development by other players mentioned in the original blog post are particularly suited for broker/dealers, investment banks, asset managers, funds or corporates. This does not conflict with SWIFT’s target: correspondent banking.

My conversation with Luc verified that SWIFT has been explicitly appointed to develop the KYC Registry software. It also suggested that a one-size-fits-all solution cannot be applied in the KYC registry domain, and that other players have the opportunity—and are encouraged—to provide value as well. Conversations with other parties also confirmed that FIs welcome SWIFT’s commitment to developing software for transaction banking services, but that SWIFT’s recommendations and standards can be accepted and endorsed only once they have been validated through real-life implementations.

In conclusion, the information received has helped me to hone my opinion on SWIFT’s approach and strategy. SWIFT has indeed decided to be a key competitor in the KYC ecosystem—for that, I would recommend that SWIFT more frequently communicate updates on the development of its KYC Registry platform. I look forward to finding out more.

This is the link to the blog post that I promised: https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=9131

Enrico

When I wrote my comment to a previous announcement about the KYC registry I did not want to do the bird of ill omen to SWIFT although all planets seem aligning to put the bank cooperative into a corner.

I will be elaborating this thought in a blog post soon to be published here on Finextra.

In the interest of banks and of corporate clients, SWIFT and KYC Exchange are still in time to avoid harmful and unnecessary fierce competition. Both are focusing to develop a global KYC repository and if they do it right they will create the best conditions for true collaboration, bringing value to all parties involved: Themselves, banks, and banks’ corporate clients.

• KYC Exchange has the technical skills to develop a solid web-based platform for KYC and due diligence, but has no bank participants as of yet.
• SWIFT has the network of banks and the credibility to establish internationally de-facto recognized standard procedures and practices for KYC.

If SWIFT only would refrain from the temptation to act as a software house and instead stick to its core values (i.e., “act 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 interest”- source:  www.swift.com) they could provide the necessary guidelines, criteria, and datasets that KYC Exchange would then implement into software applications.

Collaboration between SWIFT and KYC Exchange along the suggested lines is the only factual way I anticipate can turn into real value the proposition of a global KYC Registry as recently announced by SWIFT.

My very brief tweet is that this SEPA migration deadline extension sounds like an evident failure for banks. When working on SEPA they hardly ever answered the question: What's in it for my clients? Now clients are asking again and nobody has answered yet.

This is indeed good news. It should also resolve one of the issues I anticipated my "Why is Supply Chain Finance so Slow to Grow?" blog post.

I am just wondering how long it will take before this feature is made possible also in the B2B space. The opportunities are huge and I am looking forward to seeing next steps in the corporate-to-bank marketplace.

Excellent food for thought, Chris. After reading your post it looks like today the industry has to play tricks to trade...

This is an update to my previous post.

At Eurofinance 2013 Sanjay Chikarmane- SVP & General Manager, Global Technology Solutions at SAP- explained to me SAP's view on the respective roles that SAP FSN and Ariba Network will play: Ariba Network will connect businesses allowing them to exchange data for B2B relationships. SAP FSN will take care of connecting the corporate side with banks to transact payments instructions and messages.

Both systems will co-exist to cover the physical (i.e, Ariba Network) and the financial (i.e, SAP FSN) chains of interconnected companies. The illustration in http://www.slideshare.net/tcameri/sap-ariba-integration-model should further help visualize SAP’s strategy.

My comment: The conversation with Sanjay was very useful as it validated initial predictions of what the Ariba and SAP systems were supposed to deliver. That the two systems will co-exist to cover different portions of a company’s value chain also explains why they are managed as independent entities. There is however no official public position from SAP on this matter as the full strategy is still “under construction” and will be made available in 2014.

I would recommend instead SAP to adopt a more courageous approach and illustrate its plans for the integration without any further ado.