SWIFT India is a joint venture between SWIFT SCRL (Society for the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) and the top nine public and private sector banks in India, including (in alphabetical order) Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Union Bank of India. The company is an industry-led financial messaging service provider with the objective of reducing complexity and costs, and enabling new and improved financial services to the Indian community.

At the customer signing ceremony, eight additional Indian and foreign banks showed their support to enable SWIFT India's services, including (in alphabetical order) Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Corporation Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. The event is a signal to the broader community that top banks are in the process of enabling SWIFT India as a domestic messaging platform on the lines of its international counterpart.

SWIFT India will go live with its local SWIFTNet platform and domestic messaging services in January 2015. In the first wave, SWIFT India will provide comprehensive messaging services for the Next Generation RTGS, National ACH, interbank trade finance and treasury and corporate-to-bank payments and cash management, trade finance and treasury market segments.

M V Nair, Chairman of the Board, SWIFT India, says: "We are delighted to see that SWIFT India has received such a strong backing from the broader financial community. The Indian financial services market is extremely diverse and vibrant, and requires a robust world-class messaging platform like the SWIFTNet platform. We are confident that SWIFT India will work toward meeting the sector's growing needs and support them for its next wave of transformation and growth."

Alain Raes, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific and EMEA, SWIFT, comments: "Asc and EMEA, SWIFT, comments: "As both Chief Executive of Asia Pacific and EMEA at SWIFT SCRL and Director on the Board of SWIFT India, I am pleased to see we have made substantial progress with the delivery of our domestic messaging services and the strong continuing support and response from the Indian banking community. SWIFT SCRL is a co-operative and we act in collaboration with our members and customers to meet common challenges. It is with pleasure that we work together toward delivering our shared services."

Sachit Sahni, Head of GTS Origination, India, The Royal Bank of Scotland, says: "RBS is looking forward to the launch and growth of SWIFT India's domestic financial messaging services as a further enhancement to serving domestic and global corporates." 

Nimesh Karwanyun, Managing Director & Head - Transaction Banking, India, BNP Paribas, says: "BNP Paribas has always led the way with technology based solutions tailored to the unique requirement of its clients. BNP Paribas works closely with SWIFT globally and to enhance our global association, we are pleased to collaborate with SWIFT India to provide seamless and comprehensive financial messaging based solutions to our clients in India."