Swift's TSU reports increased interest

The community of Swift Trade Services Utility (TSU) banks now well exceeds 100. According to Swift, this is as a result of a flurry of new signings by banks from all over the world during recent weeks. The announcement was made at the annual Sibos event in Hong Kong last week.

Among the banks extending the TSU community beyond this landmark number of users are Barclays Commercial Bank and Bank of China Hong Kong.

According to a statement issued by Swift, the recent surge of interest is a reflection of the market’s growing confidence in TSU as an innovative open account solution, providing a platform for banks to deliver a variety of supply chain finance and other value-added products to promote process efficiency.

The migration to open account has threatened to limit banks’ involvement in trade to the settlement end of the transaction, and in order to re-intermediate themselves, the banks need to add value by extending their existing trade services to support broader supply chain integration.

The TSU is a collaborative, centralised matching utility designed to help banks meet this challenge. Banks build individually on the core functionality of the TSU, to offer competitive services complementary to their existing offerings to their corporate customers.

The new registrants to the TSU span all regions, and include: in Europe, Barclays Commercial Bank and Yapi Kredi Bankasi; in Americas, Banco de Crédito del Peru; and in Asia Pacific, Bank of China Hong Kong, Shin Kong Bank and Taishin Bank.

Cai Chunyan, deputy general manager, corporate banking and financial institutions, at Bank of China (Hong Kong), says: “We are delighted to join the growing community of TSU banks, and look forward to building on this platform to create new bring more value-added trade services for our customers.”

Iain MacDonald, head of trade product at Barclays Commercial Bank, adds: “We are developing our next phase of trade solutions to add more value across our customers’ supply chains. The TSU has the potential to form part of our new capabilities and, over time, could facilitate transformational change in the market.”

Andre Casterman, head of trade and supply chain at Swift, concludes: “The recent signings and the growth of the TSU community beyond the 100-bank mark are highly significant, and validate our commitment to the TSU as a core element of our strategy for supply chain.”