Equant has signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Società Interbancaria Italiana to provide an IP VPN connecting 120 Italian financial institutions and enabling access to the next-generation SwiftNet messaging platform.
Equant is one of four pre-qualified network service vendors selected by Swift to provide access to the SwiftNet backbone. Other approved carriers include AT&T, Colt and Infonet.
Equant says it has so far won more than 200 orders from financial institutions in 36 countries during the first six months of the new network migration process for Swift, which began in January. New Equant orders include contracts from HVB and T Rowe Price.
As the only global network chosen for the programme, Equant has a monopoly on provision to at least 500 Swift member banks in countries where it is the only approved IP VPN provider option.