Although far from a sexy topic, SWIFT’s latest version of its reference data repository, Bankers World Online, does hold the promise of easier counterparty risk assessment and regulatory reporting.
BWO, part of the SWIFTRef information provision suite, provides a wealth of new data—incorporating information from market data and financial information providers, such as Dun & Bradstreet, Reuters and Moody’s, to provide a comprehensive view of counterparties.
The service provides BICs (bank identifier codes) IBANs (international bank account numbers, LEIs (legal entity identifiers) and national bank codes to expedite global payments. New data includes shareholder info, balance sheet numbers, cash flows, and a wide array of stats on customers and suppliers.
For corporates, BWO, in combination with the Payments Plus ref data utility, can provide the following counterparty info—in addition to BICs and national bank codes (from SWIFT):
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banks’ name, address and contact details
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SEPA data, including routing information and IBAN validation
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standing settlement instructions (SSI) for worldwide treasury and wholesale payments
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country, currency and holiday information
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credit ratings
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bank hierarchy information
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the FI’s adherence to SEPA scheme (SCT, SDD Core or SDD B2B)
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the correspondents of a beneficiary bank for a particular currency
And it can populate the data directly in a corporate’s ERP system (in particular, SWIFT has a package designed to link directly with SAP).
“The renewed service will improve payments STP rates, support risk mitigation, reduce costs and time spent on manual repairs and investigations, while ensuring regulatory compliance,” said SWIFT in a statement.
