Swift to Return 20% of Fees Paid In First Half of '95

BRUSSELS - Banks using the international financial messaging services of the Swift network will get rebates totaling $28 million for the first half of 1995.

The rebate amounts to a 20% reduction of Swift fees for the first two quarters.

Swift, formally the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a bank-owned cooperative for domestic and international financial messages.

Over 4,700 banks, securities firms, and stock exchanges from 129 countries use the network to exchange the details of funds and securities transfers in standard computer formats.

Yawar Shah, a senior vice president with Chemical Banking Corp. and a U.S. representative on Swift's board of directors, said the rebates are "based on good message volume growth, which was 16% during the first five months of the year, and strong cost control."

Swift executives said the added volume growth of both payments and securities may result in further returns to customers by the end of this year.

The network, which averaged about 2.2 million messages daily at the beginning of the year, peaked earlier this month at nearly 2.7 million, representing a value of over $2 trillion.

Since 1992, Swift's pricing for services has dropped more than 40%. This drop has translated into approximately $485 million returned to customers.

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