SWIFT announced that it will enable financial institutions to connect to its network and applications through public cloud providers Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft – a move that will streamline access to its financial messaging service to enable new innovation while ensuring robust resiliency and security.
Customers will be able to connect to the SWIFT network through Alliance Connect Virtual – a new connectivity option that enables users to deploy SWIFT VPN connections with the selected public cloud providers instead of hosting hardware in their own data centers. The new connectivity option continues SWIFT’s long track record of supporting its customers’ cloud strategies as part of its own vision to enable instant and frictionless cross-border transactions anywhere in the world.
Moving to the public cloud has the potential to unlock significant benefits for financial institutions, reducing costs, increasing agility, improving automation and streamlining compliance, all without compromising on security or availability. To that end, SWIFT has worked with each cloud provider to ensure compliance with its Customer Security Programme (CSP), which continually raises the bar on cyber protections to help financial institutions strengthen their defences against cyberattacks and protect the integrity of the wider financial network.
Stephen Gilderdale, chief product officer at SWIFT, said in a statemen: “Cloud technology has been game-changing for the financial industry over the past decade and will be a key enabler of future forms and flows of money. We are proud to build upon our existing success with cloud strategies to help our community securely access the SWIFT network across the globe with ease and to benefit from the power of the public cloud.”
SWIFT has worked with a number of early adopters – from new digital banks to global financial institutions – to shape its public cloud offering and final stages of testing are now underway. The new Alliance Connect Virtual service will become generally available later in 2022.