“There is a huge market of corporates in Japan, China, India and ASEAN”
Alain Raes, CEO at SWIFT Asia Pacific, discusses the organisation’s bid to better penetrate the APAC market, as well as challenges faced in the region. October 07, 2013 | Esther TanIn January 2013, Alain Raes was appointed into his new role as CEO of SWIFT while simultaneously heading the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region (EMEA) since September 2007. He succeeds Ian Johnston who was instrumental in establishing the organisation’s footprint in Asia. The appointment saw Raes relocating to its Singapore office from SWIFT’s global headquarters in Belgium, where he was previously director of the Continental Europe region, covering securities and banking sales activities. Prior to his 23 years of experience in SWIFT, he worked at Citibank, Belgium, and Fortis Bank, Singapore. Raes’ main ambition is to double the revenue and volumes of all businesses in Asia in five years. SWIFT has been operating in Asia Pacific for over three decades with initial start-ups in Hong Kong and Singapore. There are now eight commercial and support offices in the region. Going domestic In Asia, SWIFT supports payment infrastructures in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia. Despite the substantial effort it takes to enter Asia’s payment markets, the potential for growth is huge. The volume growth in EMEA was 4%–4.5% even with low GDP growth in 2012 of around 1%, as EMEA is a developed market. The opposite is true in Asia where the average GDP growth of 5% did not result in the same volume growth for SWIFT. According to Raes this occurred because SWIFT has not fully explored this area of growth in the corporate segment in Asia. To address this issue, SWIFT has made some organisational changes and aims to become a locally incorporated institution to help build market infrastructure. In essence, SWIFT leverages on scale to become more valuable to the payments industry. For it to be viable in Asia, more business instruments and institutions have to be covered. Currently, less than 2% of trade flows in Asia is being captured by the payments message provider. In contrast, it covers 7%... Please login to read the complete article. If you already have an account, you can login now or subscribe/register.
Categories: Asia Pacific, Channels, Payments, Technology & Operations, Transaction Bankingasia pac,Channels,Payments,technology,Transaction Banking, Asia Pacific,Channels,Payments,Technology & Operations,Transaction Banking, Keywords:Sibos 2013, SWIFT, Alain Raes, JASDEC, PBoC, ASEAN Sibos 2013, SWIFT, Alain Raes, JASDEC, PBoC, ASEAN
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