Research will focus on real-time payments, virtual currencies, data usage, liquidity and anti-money laundering

Brussels, 12 February 2015 – The SWIFT Institute will publish a series of research papers in 2015 focusing on key challenges facing the global financial community. Research topics include, cyber security cost models, financial data usage, real-time retail payments and settlement, anti-money laundering, the influence of virtual currencies, and women in finance. The research is conducted by academics from around the world and will be available at http://swiftinstitute.org/papers/.

Launched in April 2012, the SWIFT Institute fosters independent research to extend the understanding of current practices and future needs across the financial industry. Managed by SWIFT, and working in close collaboration with academics from top international universities, including Cornell University, ESSEC Business School and Singapore Management University, the SWIFT Institute brings the financial industry and academia together to explore ideas and share knowledge on topics of global importance.

“SWIFT is uniquely placed to bridge the gap between academic thinking and the financial services industry, leveraging topics of mutual interest,” said Peter Ware, Director, SWIFT Institute at SWIFT. “Since the launch of the Institute, we have made great progress in achieving this goal and will continue to do so with new research in 2015 focused on topics of global importance. Our aim is to help the global financial community better understand and manage the obstacles it is facing through new research and greater dialogue at events.”

Upcoming list of research papers planned for 2015 include:

• A Predictive Cyber Security Cost Model for Financial Services Sector
• Transatlantic Extraterritoriality and the Regulation of Derivatives: Conflict and Challenge for the Financial Services Industry
• Women in Finance: A Global Perspective
• Analysis of Domestic/Cross-Border Clearing & Settlement System in Asia
• Outsourcing in Investment Management Funds: Operational Improvements vs. Risks
• Near Real-Time Retail Payment and Settlement Systems Mechanism Design
• An analysis of Bitcoin as a Novel Distributed System
• The Influence of Virtual Currencies on Fiat Currencies
• Multinational Banking and Conflicts among US-EU AML/CTF Compliance & Privacy Law
• The Role of Big Data in Governance

For events in 2015, SWIFT Institute will be bringing the topic of cyber security to the East Coast of the US on 18 May 2015, looking at the issues of insider threats, cryptography and supply chain concerns at a joint conference with the University of Delaware. In conjunction with SWIFT’s Standards Forum, the Institute will also host a one day event focusing on regulation in the financial industry in New York on 3 November 2015. Discussions will focus on how standards could play a role in helping to better implement and ultimately comply with regulations. The SWIFT Institute will also be bringing academics to Sibos in Singapore where they will participate in the conference, as well as lead and participate in dedicated discussions on key industry topics.

Since its inception, the Institute has issued 23 research grants and published ten research papers. The following papers, and more, are available for download from the SWIFT Institute:

• Cross-border Low Value Payments and Regional Integration: Enablers and Disablers – December 2014
• Theory of Optimum Financial Areas: Retooling the Debate on the Governance of Global Finance – November 2014
• The Global Network of Payment Flows – September 2014
• Macroprudential Oversight, Risk Communication and Visualisation – May 2014

Download the media advisory here.