SWIFT extends Sanctions Screening 13 January 2015Brussels Reporter: Stephanie Palmer
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SWIFT has extended its Sanctions Screening service to support messages used in all financial transactions, regardless of financial network and format.
The service will now screen all transaction formats, including SEPA and Fedwire, and over networks other than SWIFT.
The extension is designed to offer greater flexibility and back-office integration, and to address the needs of mid-sized banks and users with complex business and operational requirements.
Sanctions Screening was developed to support fast message screening against international sanctions lists, and now enables screening against more than 30, including those of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, the UK’s HM Treasury, the European Union and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
It is designed to combines screening engines and sanctions list management with the security, reliability and resilience associated with SWIFT, and offers sanctions list updates at no additional cost, reducing risks and operational costs for customers.
Ramiro Uribe Aleman, chief compliance officer of Bolivia's Banco Economico, said: “We chose Sanctions Screening from SWIFT to use as part of our process for sending and receiving electronic wire transfers. We are confident that this application provided by SWIFT will be a great contribution to effective sanctions compliance.”
Nicolas Stuckens, head of Sanctions Compliance Services at SWIFT said: “Sanctions Screening is a community-based solution that makes transaction screening simple and affordable, even for the smallest institutions.”
The service was introduced as the first offering in SWIFT’s financial crime compliance portfolio in 2012, and is now used by more than 300 institutions, including 15 central banks, across 97 countries.
Stuckens added: “Extending this service is a natural next step for SWIFT in our vision to support the evolving financial crime compliance needs of the industry.”
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