Officials during the virtual meeting.

UAE’s SWIFT User Group Steering Committee & National Member Group (SUGSCNMC) held its 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM), virtually.

The meeting was presided over by Jamal Saleh, Chairman of UAE’s SWIFT User Group and Director General of UAE Banks Federation (UBF).

The attendees discussed the latest SWIFT updates relevant to the UAE banking sector, assessed progress of SUGSCNMC’s action plan for 2021, and explored collective actions and strategies to improve payment performance and promote a robust, efficient and secure banking system in the UAE.

The meeting also discussed the participation of member banks in the upcoming Sibos 2021 -the annual conference organised by SWIFT for the global financial industry which is scheduled to take place as a digital-only event in October 2021 before returning to a physical event for the 2022 edition to be held in Amsterdam.

SUGSCNMC members approved the minutes of their last meeting which was held on 14th of June 2020, reviewed activities and outcomes during the year 2020, and approved the budget for 2021, as well as the audited financial statement for the year ending 31 December 2020.

A key topic of discussion at the AGM was SWIFT’s new Training Centre in the UAE, designed to enhance operational excellence in the financial industry by providing bespoke training programs to SWIFT User Group member bankers. The training programs will cover the latest and most comprehensive information on all SWIFT-related products and services.

The meeting also discussed the Steering Committee’s enhanced agenda and expanded mandate following its decision last year to establish a “National Member Group”, whereunder the SUGSC officially changed its name to become “SWIFT User Group Steering Committee & National Member Group - SUGCNMG”. The move aims at widening participation in decision-making by inviting external stakeholders and experts to future SUGCNMG meetings.

Members also resolved to host regular meetings, workshops, training, and events in coordination with SWIFT Dubai Office. Last month, UBF and SWIFT had jointly hosted a virtual webinar on the topic “Adoption of ISO 20022 for Cross-Border Payments”.

Jamal Saleh said: “The AGM discussed the ways in which various stakeholders can work together - and pool expertise and resources - to advance key policy and strategic issues, under the guidance of UBF. Banks in the UAE are today faced with the challenge of keeping pace with technological innovation while having to constantly upgrade their security architecture to protect against cyber threats. Coordinating views and formulating a common policy by sharing information on a regular basis has therefore become vital to the continued development of the banking and financial community, and above all, enhancing the customer experience.”

UAE Banks Federation (UBF), in partnership with SWIFT, the leading provider of secure financial messaging services, held a virtual webinar recently with senior banking experts across the UAE to discuss latest SWIFT updates as well as the adoption of new messaging standards to further promote a secure and robust banking ecosystem.

SWIFT’s objective is to support the evolving payments and securities business of financial institutions. Over the next two years, and beyond, SWIFT will fundamentally transform what it does, innovating to facilitate instant and frictionless payments from account-to-account anywhere in the world, with an end-to-end solution that combines international and domestic capabilities.

Commenting on UBF’s long relationship with SWIFT, AbdulAziz Al-Ghurair, Chairman of UBF, said that “the close collaboration of UBF and SWIFT in driving the adoption of ISO-20022 across the UAE banking sector, and their advisory role on policy and strategic issues, ensure the importance of safety and security of the financial ecosystem and payment solutions of our UBF member banks and SWIFT Users, in line with highest international standards, more importantly during this critical period.”

During the webinar, Jamal Saleh announced the recent establishment of a UAE SWIFT Training Centre under the umbrella of UBF, which is a first of its kind in the MENA region. The SWIFT Training Centre aims to help all members of SWIFT in the UAE, as well as the entire banking and financial community, to keep up to date with all the products and standards and SWIFT, such as ISO-20022, that have a significant importance on the operation of all financial institutions and SWIFT Users.

Onur Ozan, SWIFT’s Head of Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said that “Our strategy builds on the success of recent transformation initiatives, such as SWIFT gpi, and leverages SWIFT’s unparalleled reach across more than 11,000 institutions in 200 countries and territories as well as its proven track record of timely execution, risk control and global engagement.”