The Federal Reserve banks reported "substantial advances" Monday in amending their wire transfer formats to improve anti-money-laundering monitoring and to incorporate remittance information.
Fed officials are to meet this week with their counterparts at other central banks and with other users of the SwiftNet messaging system at the Sibos banking conference in Vienna to discuss changes in the world's systems for high-value funds transfers.
Swift, formally the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, plans to introduce a new messaging format in November 2009 for processing "cover payments," instructions that may pass through multiple banks that may be required to monitor the sender and receiver to guard against money laundering.
The Fed also said that the first phase of its upgraded Fedwire system would be operational around the same time. Remittance details, a popular request by users of corporate wires, are to follow by the end of 2010.
