Swift has cancelled the Sibos physical event, which was to have taken place in Boston in early October, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a brief statement, Swift says it is looking into putting out some "world-class industry thought leadership content digitally" the week that the conference had been slated to occur.
Says Swift: "We reached this decision after extensive consultation with the community and in the interest, first and foremost, of protecting the safety and wellbeing of our customers, partners and staff."
Sibos is the biggest fintech conference victim of coronavirus so far. Money20/20 has pushed back its Europe conference in Amsterdam to September while EBADay, run by Finextra and the Euro Banking Association, is now set for late November.
A fixture in the calendar since 1978, Sibos last year it attracted a record 11,500 delegates and more than 300 exhibitors to London.
The last time Swift was forced to cancel the globe-hopping event was back in 2001 owing to security fears following the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks. On that occasion, the conference was ditched with just a week's notice. The timing of that announcement - and Swift’s prevarications in the preceding period - angered many and proved extremely costly for the vendor community whish supports the show, which may explain the abundance of caution shown this time round.