On July 11, 2018, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the Banking Operations Center coordinated with SWIFT to organize SWIFT 2018 Workshop.
Attending the workshop were Ms. Le Dieu Hong, representative from SWIFT in Vietnam; Mr. Jean Philippe Soubry, Head of the ASEAN Compliance Service; Mr. Jackson Yip, SWIFT Customer Security Specialist. On the SBV’s side, there were representatives from the Banking Operations Center and other relevant entities, several credit institutions and branches of foreign banks in Vietnam.
The workshop focused on updating SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (SWIFTgpi) with SWIFTgpi Value Added Services and SWIFT Standards Release 2018 (SR2018).
At the workshop, the experts delivered presentations on SWIFTgpi, which is a global payments innovation initiative announced and developed by SWIFT from December, 2015 and was officially launched in January, 2017. This is a solution to improve the quality of international payment service provision for banks and their customers by increasing the speed, transparency and ability to handle transactions. According to the statistics, an average of over USD 100 billion is paid daily through gpi, of which almost 50% of payments are credited to the beneficiary's account within 30 minutes. There are over 180 banks in the world already signed up to the SWIFTgpi, of which 65 banks have gone live. In Vietnam, there are three banks participating in SWIFTgpi, namely Vietcombank, BIDV and Vietinbank, of which Vietcombank has officially gone live since June 4, 2018; the remaining banks are expected to go live by the end of 2018.
The issue of cybercrime and financial crime is one of the biggest challenges faced by the financial industry in the digital era 4.0. The attacks are increasingly widespread and complex, with increasingly sophisticated technology and tricks. At the Workshop, the experts introduced methods and tools to detect and prevent fraudulent payments as well as measures to educate and train the staff in awareness and compliance with security regulations and procedures, develop a "cyber security culture" in their organizations.
In the afternoon session, the main content was training for members on the Customer Security Program (CSP). This is a regular and continuous task for banks to ensure the implementation of the required contents in the CSP.
One of the changes in the SWIFT Standards MT Release 2018 is the use of the Unique End-to-End Transaction Reference (UETR). Accordingly, it is compulsory for all SWIFT users (including non-gpi members) to add UETR to all telegraphic transfers, payments and forwardings. The SR2018 update will take effect from November, 2018.
With a view to assisting the members, on July 12, 2018, a similar workshop was held at the HCMC branch of the SBV.
This was an important training program for the SWIFT users’ community in Vietnam, updating them on SWIFT's new tools and solutions to reduce fraud and cybercrime risks, while training them on the tasks that SWIFT users must perform in the CSP as well as the new changes in the SWIFT Standard MT.
Le Hang