SWIFT Standards Release. Your vote matters.

Back from Sibos?  Time to dive into the green books and get busy with the remediation work for the annual SWIFT Standards Release.  It comes around every year as sure as death and taxes.  How many Standards Releases can one person take in a single career?  [Editors note.  This website takes no responsibility for the actions of those who attempt to answer this question] 

While most of us are grappling with the gory details of the 2014 release, the preparations for SR2015 are stealthily taking place behind the scenes.

While you are busy moaning and groaning about how much work is involved in ensuring all your systems, middleware, and vendor products are compliant with the new standards scheduled for release on November 16th this year, why not pause for a moment to consider how all these changes came to be.

Take a look at http://www.swift.com/products_services/by_type/standards/standards_mt_maint_rel_2015 for a description of the timeline and the process.

Tucked away on page 5 of the High Level Information document is a reference to the “Country Voting Deadline”.  What??  You mean we get to vote on this stuff?

Yes.  Well actually no.  The User Group Chairpersons (UGC) hold the vote for their respective countries.  Take a look at http://www.swift.com/about_swift/community/national_member_groups?rdct=t&lang=en for a description of National User Groups. 

Sir Humphrey Appleby, that most cynical of civil servants, once quipped that in "British Democracy" voters wake up once every five years, and in the meantime the Government can get on with the job of running the country.

I want to believe this isn’t the case with the annual SWIFT release.  I really hope users and members in all countries are fully engaged with their UGC.  Please tell me that every single change request is reviewed in detail; that each vote reflects broad consensus across the community within each country.

The deadline for country votes is October 24th.  Not too late to offer your opinion on any or all of the proposed 71 change requests.  Still time to influence the way your country votes on any or all of the 83 message types that are impacted by the changes. 

You pay your money to belong to the club, so please exercise your rights.  Either that or take some advice from me: you might as well not bother complaining.