SWIFT Event to Discuss Bitcoin's Impact on Banking

An event to be held by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) in New York next month is set to include a panel of payments and cryptocurrency professionals.

The Business Forum panel will discuss cryptographic protocols and their potential impact on correspondent banks, those that provide services to other financial entities.

Head of banking markets Wim Raymaekers will moderate the panel, which will include Cheryl Gurz, managing director of the Emerging Technology Segment at BNY Mellon Treasury Services; Marc Hochstein, editor in chief of American Banker; and New York Law School professor and Coin Center fellow Houman Shadab.

The payments communications network is the creator of the Business Identifier Codes (BICs), more commonly known as SWIFT codes, which are required of banks to process wire transfers.

Panelists will discuss the way cryptographic protocols are affecting and challenging wire transfer, automated clearinghouse (ACH) payments and other existing technologies and money-moving solutions for global banking and cross-border payments.

"The practice of correspondent banking [is] still at the heart of most cross-border payments. However, every day we read announcements in the press about new entrants, startups and crypto-protocols challenging correspondent banking," the event summary reads.

SWIFT works with more that 10,800 banking and securities institutions worldwide. It is also the host of the annual SIBOS conference for financial services industry members.

The Business Forum will take place 3rd March at the Marriott Marquis in New York. The crypto-protocols panel is scheduled to begin at 13:30.