September 22, 2025 • 21 mins
Swift's colossal impact on global finance remains largely invisible to most people, yet its messaging infrastructure moves the world's entire GDP every 2-3 days. Leigh Amaro, Head of North America for Swift, pulls back the curtain on this financial powerhouse in a fascinating conversation about the present and future of global payments.
Founded in 1970 as a cooperative, Swift now connects approximately 11,000 financial institutions across 200 countries, processing an astounding 50+ million messages daily with just 3,000 employees worldwide. "We're like the backbone of financial services around the world," Amaro explains, highlighting Swift's role in providing secure messaging and value-added services like sanction screening and fraud detection.
The payments landscape has transformed dramatically in recent years. What was once a "black box" process with unpredictable delivery times has evolved into a system where 90% of payments reach beneficiaries within one hour. This revolution in transparency comes through innovations like Swift's GPI tracker, addressing a major pain point for corporate treasurers who previously couldn't predict when payments would arrive.
Looking forward, several developments promise to reshape global payments. The implementation of ISO 20022 in November will create a richer data layer enabling enhanced compliance, error reduction, and automation. Digital assets - including tokenized money and stablecoins - represent another frontier where Swift aims to support financial institutions through secure messaging. Meanwhile, AI continues to transform fraud detection and pattern recognition across the payment ecosystem.
Amaro's passion for women's education and mentorship shines through as she shares the story of her great-grandmother, born in 1905, who emphasized education's importance despite having to leave school at age 11. This personal connection drives her work supporting women in technology and developing mentorship communities. Her advice for those entering payments? "Trust yourself more and don't wait for permission. No one has it figured out, no one's got all the answers... The sooner you believe in yourself, the sooner others will too."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andon today's show we have a very
special guest, leigh Amaro, whois the head of North America for
Swift.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So Leigh, thank you so much for being here and
welcome to the show.
Thank you, so wonderful to behere too.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks for having me, absolutely.
Let's start out by having youtell a little bit about yourself
, maybe where you grew up, whereyou went to school, where you
currently live, a few thingslike that.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, so I have a really interesting background.
My fun fact, you know, when youhave a party fun fact is that
I'm a citizen of of jobopportunities to Vancouver,
canada.
So I was raised in Vancouver.
(01:07):
So I consider, you know, canadahome and kind of of the four,
the main, the main draw.
And so I was raised there, wentto high school there but kind
of similar to my parents, youknow, had that draw to there's
maybe bigger opportunities, youknow, south of the border as
well.
So ended up applying to CornellUniversity, which wasn't common
(01:29):
back then, I wouldn't say a lotof Canadians kind of went to
school in the US.
Luckily got in and so made themove from Vancouver, which when
people think Canada they thinksnowy and cold.
Vancouver really isn't likethat, it's more like Seattle,
it's a little rainy.
But then made the move toIthaca, new York, which is quite
chilly at times, but had awonderful four years there and
(01:52):
then really enjoyed my time atCornell.
But then after then, with yourfamily being on the West Coast,
I really was kind of missingthat same time zone.
So decided, you know, startedlooking for roles, decided to
accept a role back in SanFrancisco.
So I decided, you know, startedlooking for roles, decided to
accept a role back in SanFrancisco.
So I moved to San Francisco in2000, which is a really
interesting time to move.
(02:13):
Here I mean just for a couple offun facts, like in 2000, one of
my friends worked at Google.
Google had 200 people in theyear 2000.
And so now of course the book'sbeen written on that.
So it was really interesting tobe in Silicon Valley over the
last kind of 25 plus years andwatch the market kind of evolve
and grow and see that journey.
(02:35):
So yeah, that's a bit aboutmyself.
And now I spend a lot of timewith our customers.
I'm on the road a lot because Ilead the North America market,
which is its biggest market.
So my job really is to manage,you know, manage the market,
manage the customers.
I would say you know other thanNew York, it's an airplane
where I spend a lot of my timethese days.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Right, Got it Well.
Thanks for sharing that.
So I think most of our audiencewill know who Swift is, but
maybe give us the high leveloverview of who Swift is and
kind of where you fit in thepayments market.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Swift's actually kind of fascinating.
So Swift is a cooperative.
We're probably one of the laststanding financial services
cooperatives, if not the laststanding one.
You know we all remember kindof Visa and MasterCard used to
be cooperatives and then ofcourse they went public.
So Swift is, you know, one ofthose longest standing ones,
from 1970 is when we werefounded, and so what we do is we
(03:28):
connect about 11,000 financialinstitutions across 200
countries to move messages,payments, seamlessly.
So just a couple of kind of funfacts, because I don't think
people always understand thescale of Swift and the impact of
Swift is we move the world'sGDP every two to three days
across our platform.
(03:48):
So huge volume and as anemployee it's kind of cool to
work at a place where you canhave such a big impact on global
money flows.
Another fun fact is, just froma scale perspective, the dollar
amount is the world's GDP everytwo to three days, but the
messaging it's 50 millionmessages plus a day, so just
tremendous kind of financialflow.
(04:10):
We're like the backbone of kindof financial services around
the world, so that's reallyexciting.
So the core product, of course,is messaging.
We are a messaging platform but, like many, you know
cooperatives and folks in thisspace.
You want to deliver value addedservices that sit on top of
that core messaging platform.
So think around tools forcompliance, fraud, speed and
(04:33):
transparency.
Where is the payment?
When's it going to arrive?
All of those are kind of corevalue-added solutions that you
know we provide to those 11,000financial institutions that we
provide to those 11,000financial institutions.
Employee-wise, we're a lotsmaller than people think For
the impact that I just walkedthrough.
We have 3,000 employees and sowe punch above our weight when
(04:57):
it comes to impact of what we'redelivering in the market.
We're headquartered in Belgiumever since the 1970s, but major
offices all around the world.
Again, we want to be where thebanks are and support them in
driving their business forward.
So, yeah, so in the end,swift's all about, you know,
securely, safely, at scalemoving those messages around the
(05:18):
world to drive the ecosystemforward.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Are you mainly sending these messages between
banks, or are there alsomerchants involved?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
No, it's between banks and fintechs.
So the ecosystem is there's twokind of sides.
It's between the payment sideand the security side.
So on the security side it'sstill financial institutions,
but it could be, you know,brokers and then on the payment
side it's traditional financialinstitutions.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Okay, maybe explain your competitive landscape.
So like, what differentiatesyou?
Who do you kind of competeagainst?
A little bit about that wouldbe awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah.
So from a competitiveperspective, we really just look
at the market and the ecosystemto.
You know how the banks want tomove money, so how we want to be
there to support the bankswhich are our owners, because
it's a cooperative and how theychoose to move money.
So banks may choose to movemoney on the SWIFT ecosystem.
They may choose to move moneywithin their own kind of
(06:16):
book-to-book transfers.
So if Citi has a branch in HongKong and Citi has the branch in
the US, they may not need tomove that through the SWIFT
ecosystem, but that's finebecause we want to support the
cooperative and how they chooseto move money.
So from a competitionperspective, we really don't
think of it that way.
What we want to do is providethe messaging tools to the
(06:39):
community to support how we wantto move the messages that move
the money in the way that theywant to do so.
So I would say less competitionand more listening to the
ecosystem and making sure we'reproviding those tools and those
interoperability options tosupport them in their end goals.
One example is like theblockchain right, you can start
(07:01):
a payment on chain, move it offchain, go back to chain.
We still want that swiftmessaging layer to be there to
support you on that journey.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Okay, and you mentioned something I want to
double click on is the valueadded services.
Could you maybe walk throughsome examples of what that would
be?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
A great example is like sanction screening.
So we've got tools in placewhere you know, as you're
looking at those 50 millionmessages a day, swift has robust
tools that can look at you know, does that hit a sanction
screen?
Share that back with thefinancial institution so they
can decide if they want to takeaction on that screening item.
(07:37):
So that's probably one of thebiggest ones.
The other thing too is you knowwe see patterns in the data, so
we'll see patterns around fraudand so we'll give advice back
to the community of hey, thisthing looks a little off, maybe
you want to revisit before yourelease the funds for that
transaction.
So a lot of that comes down tokind of the AI tools we have in
(07:58):
building, kind of those robustAI models that we can share back
with the community to drivethat impact forward for their
business.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Where do you see the payments industry headed, say,
in the next three to five years?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, that's.
It's really exciting.
So at Swift, it's such anexciting time to be in this
space because of the speed atwhich payments are moving faster
through this system.
So speed and transparency isone of the biggest innovations
we see.
If you think about payments afew years ago, it was kind of a
black box.
You would institute a paymentand you did not really know when
(08:33):
it was going to arrive at thebeneficiary, so Coca-Cola would
try to play a supplier, maybeget there five days, maybe three
days.
Now, with the big investmentsin what we call the GPI tracker
and the community reallyinvested in speed, we're now at
a place where 90% of paymentshit that end beneficiary within
(08:54):
one hour.
So speed and kind of digitalfirst has been transformed in
cross-border payments, which issuper exciting.
I think the other angle too forinnovation is ISO.
So with ISO coming in Novemberfor Swift it's already come for
Fed and many other marketinfrastructures.
(09:14):
But with the launch of ISO inNovember, that data layer is
just going to get richer.
And when you have a richer datalayer you're able to do a lot
more compliance screening,reducing errors, boosting
automation, which will drive thecommunity forward too.
So post-November we're going tosee a lot more innovation and
(09:37):
once that data gets richer, allthese new services can be
launched to support thecommunity and drive those
missions forward.
So that's super exciting.
Then I think, longer term,you're going to see again this
continued push for digital,whether that's tokenized assets,
tokenized money, stablecoin,which is kind of the buzzword of
(09:58):
the last couple of weeks.
We want to be there and supportthe community in how they want
to move money and support ourmessaging infrastructure to
evolve, infrastructure to evolveAgain, as I was saying earlier,
to move on-chain to off-chain,to back on-chain.
We want to be that backbone tosupport the community on that
journey.
So I think the digital side andthen, as I said, ai will be
(10:21):
embedded everywhere for myfuture innovation as you get
richer data and as you move tomore of kind of a tokenized
world.
So it's really interesting andreally exciting to see where
payments are going.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, you hit on all the core themes that I hear
every day.
I get three or four a weekpitches for people who want to
come on and talk about stablecoins.
I mean, when the Genius Actpassed, it was like it opened up
the floodgates.
Everybody's willing to talkabout it now, so that's a big
one.
And then, of course, ai is theother one.
Right, I think companies,organizations across the world
are trying to figure out howthey can use AI not only
internally, but with theirproducts and with their services
(11:01):
to other businesses.
So definitely huge themes.
Before we leave, talking aboutthe company and the market, you
have a big event every yearthat's coming up in about a
month, do you?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
want to maybe give that a plug.
Yeah, sibos is fantastic.
So this year, sibos is inFrankfurt at the end of
September.
It's going to be such anamazing event.
It's where the world comes totalk about all those core
innovations where we were justmentioning.
So there's going to be workstreams on AI, on digital assets
, on kind of innovation againstfraud and compliance.
(11:34):
So we're super excited.
I think we have recordattendance from a registration
perspective, so it will be greatto see everyone there and go on
that journey of learningtogether at Sibos.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And you recently had an announcement I assume you can
talk about it with AntFinancial about a digital wallet
that you're integrating intoeverything.
Can you kind of explain whatthat is?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah.
So that kind of speaks to ourinteroperability comment.
So the money moves in all sortsof ways, right, it's going to
move into.
It can move into a bank account, it can move into a wallet, it
can move into a mobile, it canmove into, you know, a mobile
phone, minute components incertain markets.
And so what SWIFT wants to dowith the community is we want to
support that movement of moneyand how the community wants to
(12:20):
move those funds.
And so in this case it's reallyexciting.
It's the launch of kind ofplugging into Ant Financial's
wallet ecosystem.
So if you're paying a TikTokinfluencer, that money could go
that way instead of having thisslower way of going through
their bank accounts.
So it's really kind of thinkingabout the new digital economy,
(12:41):
what those receivers of fundsare wanting and how they want to
be paid.
And at Swift we want to supportthe ecosystem of how people
want to get paid, how the bankswant to move those money in
those new ways.
And so that's a great exampleof an innovation for us and
we're really proud of thepartnership with Standard
Charter and Ant Financial.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Great.
Well, let's switch gears alittle bit and talk about you.
So, if you don't mind, walk usthrough your professional
journey and how you got to SWIFT.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, so I have spent my career in payments more than
two decades now in payments.
I started my career at Visa, soon the retail side, and I've
really seen the evolution.
I think this is one of my themesis I love the evolution of
digital and digitization inpayments.
So back then we even still hadthe knuckle busters.
If you remember the knucklebusters like you're in a taxi
and call them knuckle bustersbecause it actually really hurt
(13:36):
your knuckle and so think aboutthe evolution of that on the
retail side, all the way throughto where we are today, where
you pay with your face, you paywith your thumbprint, you paid
by tapping, and so thatevolution of what consumers are
asking for in digital paymentsis now, of course, coming on the
corporate side, and so for me,that was one of the really
(13:59):
exciting things I thought aboutwhen I thought about moving to
Swift is it's the next frontierof where digital is really going
to lead.
Because if you're a corporatetreasurer and you have this one
type of experience in this partof your life right the consumer
part of your life of how you paywith you know your face and how
(14:19):
you do online banking you'regoing.
Then you move into thecorporate side like, hey, I'm
the CFO of this corporate, whydoes it?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
operate like this?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Why don't I have all this, the transparency and the
tools that I had on the consumerside?
So that's one of the reallyexciting things for me that drew
me to Swift, because we're onthe cutting edge of that and
really trying to innovate Againone of those examples around GPI
and the tracker for speed andtransparency really innovate and
(14:48):
give them the tools to bringthat consumer experience into
kind of the corporate world, andso that was one of the things
that really drew me here I wouldlead as I said earlier, I'd
lead the North America market,which is Swift's largest market
around the world, and have thepleasure of kind of serving some
of the most robust financialinstitutions out here.
(15:09):
So in the North America market,you know, some of our key goals
are really to drive thatpayment innovation forward,
strengthen that connectivity,that interoperability and just
really keep pace with kind ofthe needs of what the largest
financial institutions in theworld need.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Well, what are some things you're passionate about?
So, maybe one work-relatedpassion and one personal passion
.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
To answer this.
I kind of have to tell like atiny little story, so bear with
me as I tell my story.
So I'm very passionate abouttwo core things.
I'm super passionate aboutwomen's education and mentorship
.
And the reason why and this isthe little story, is the reason
why is I was very close to mygreat-nana, who has since passed
away, but my great-nana wasborn in 1905 in the UK and she
(15:58):
had to leave school at the ageof 11.
If you've seen the show DowntonAbbey, she had to leave school
to go and work in one of thosemanners as what they call a
scullery maid, which is thelowest level, lowest level in
the manor.
Her job was to empty the ashesfrom the fireplaces at you know
(16:20):
odd hours of the day and whatshe did was she worked very hard
, she took all these risks andshe got all the way up to what
they called ladies made, whichis the highest level you can get
in the house, which normallyyou wouldn't feed from the
social economic group she hadcome from.
But she worked really hard toget there and then she got
(16:41):
pregnant, left and then startedthat started her family.
And what's interesting aboutthat story is she would tell me
so many times around likeeducation and the most important
thing is to focus on youreducation.
No one can take your educationaway from you.
Be curious, always be learning,take risks, raise your hand for
(17:03):
those opportunities.
And so that was one of thethings that's kind of always
grounded me is those messagesand the opportunities she did
not have, that I've had, as inmy life, the privilege I've had
in my life to be able to go tocollege, have a great education,
is to really pay that forwardin the community.
So really support, you know,girls in technology programs,
(17:27):
middle school programs.
I mentor, I speak at a lot ofmiddle schools and high schools
around encouraging women to gointo tech, staying in tech, and
then, specifically at Swift, youknow, growing that mentorship
community.
Because you need a village,right, you need a village to
grow.
And so one of the key thingsthat Swift does a great job of
actually on these two points ofeducation and mentorship, is
(17:51):
they have really robustcontinuing education
opportunities.
So don't just stop learningonce you get your job.
Take advantage.
We were just talking about AI,right, take advantage of any
course you can to continuelearning and growing.
Then the second thing that theydo a great job, of which I lead
for the North America market,is the women's leadership group,
(18:12):
so our business resource group,where we've got robust
mentoring in place, a lot ofopportunities to share from each
other.
Grow, you know, take thoserisks, get that coaching.
So those are that's kind of thesecond bucket, I would say.
So women's education andmentorship are really important
to me.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Okay, do you feel like those are personal and
business kind of intertwined?
As far as passions go, yeah, Iwould.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I would say there I blend my lives.
So I would say what I have athome with you know what I do on
my, with supporting my daughter,supporting my son in this next
generation kind of comes alsointo the workforce.
So I think it, I think itoverlaps.
For me, for sure, it's a deeppassion.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Okay, okay.
Well, we just had the WomenLeaders in Payments month, which
is July every year, so we justhad that and we talked a lot
about more on the mentorshipside than the education side,
but we spent a lot of time withat 14 different guests on.
We'll definitely need to haveyou on next year.
Would love to already get thaton the books, because I think it
would be great to hear yourstories about what you've done
(19:17):
in that area, obviously, sinceit's a passion of yours stories
about what you've done in thatarea, obviously, since it's a
passion of yours.
Well, one final question beforewe wrap up.
If someone comes to you maybethey're right out of college,
maybe they're changing careersand they want to get into
payments.
As someone that's been inpayments 20 years or more, what
would you tell them they need todo to be successful in this
industry?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, that's such a good question.
So I would say in general, myoverall advice for payments or
just whatever field you want togo into is really like trust
yourself more and don't wait forpermission.
We all have imposter syndrome.
I'm not ready, I don't have theanswers, I can't do that role
(19:59):
or project.
I can't do that project.
And my advice for everyone inpayments and across industries
is continue that deep learningand bet on yourself.
Bet on yourself, raise yourhand, take those risks, and that
will really kind of drive youforward.
Early in my career I was reallyhesitant to do that.
(20:22):
I would be hesitant to speak up, go for opportunities, because
I felt that I just needed moreexperience.
Lee, you just need to crackthese two more things before you
raise your hand for thatproject or that new role.
And then, looking back, yourealize, like no one has it
figured out, no one's got allthe answers.
(20:45):
So what you really need to dois just raise your hand, jump in
, leverage your community ofyour support, your tribe, and
really go for it.
Because, like, the sooner youbelieve in yourself, the sooner
others will too.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I think that's great advice and a great way to wrap
up the show.
So, before we go, is thereanything else you'd like to
cover?
Any final comments or thoughts?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
No, just.
Thank you so much for having meand for doing this amazing
podcast.
I think it's great to hear.
I've watched a number of yourinterviews.
It's so great to hear from allthe various leaders across
different industries andinstitutions, so thank you for
keeping this going.
I think it's a great treat forall of us to have access to.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Oh, great, well, I really appreciate that.
Well, lee, thank you so muchfor your time.
I know it's very valuable.
So again, thank you for beinghere today.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
My pleasure, thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And to all your listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story
next story.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
channels as well.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andon today's show we have a very
special guest, leigh Amaro, whois the head of North America for
Swift.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So Leigh, thank you so much for being here and
welcome to the show.
Thank you, so wonderful to behere too.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks for having me, absolutely.
Let's start out by having youtell a little bit about yourself
, maybe where you grew up, whereyou went to school, where you
currently live, a few thingslike that.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, so I have a really interesting background.
My fun fact, you know, when youhave a party fun fact is that
I'm a citizen of of jobopportunities to Vancouver,
canada.
So I was raised in Vancouver.
(01:07):
So I consider, you know, canadahome and kind of of the four,
the main, the main draw.
And so I was raised there, wentto high school there but kind
of similar to my parents, youknow, had that draw to there's
maybe bigger opportunities, youknow, south of the border as
well.
So ended up applying to CornellUniversity, which wasn't common
(01:29):
back then, I wouldn't say a lotof Canadians kind of went to
school in the US.
Luckily got in and so made themove from Vancouver, which when
people think Canada they thinksnowy and cold.
Vancouver really isn't likethat, it's more like Seattle,
it's a little rainy.
But then made the move toIthaca, new York, which is quite
chilly at times, but had awonderful four years there and
(01:52):
then really enjoyed my time atCornell.
But then after then, with yourfamily being on the West Coast,
I really was kind of missingthat same time zone.
So decided, you know, startedlooking for roles, decided to
accept a role back in SanFrancisco.
So I decided, you know, startedlooking for roles, decided to
accept a role back in SanFrancisco.
So I moved to San Francisco in2000, which is a really
interesting time to move.
(02:13):
Here I mean just for a couple offun facts, like in 2000, one of
my friends worked at Google.
Google had 200 people in theyear 2000.
And so now of course the book'sbeen written on that.
So it was really interesting tobe in Silicon Valley over the
last kind of 25 plus years andwatch the market kind of evolve
and grow and see that journey.
(02:35):
So yeah, that's a bit aboutmyself.
And now I spend a lot of timewith our customers.
I'm on the road a lot because Ilead the North America market,
which is its biggest market.
So my job really is to manage,you know, manage the market,
manage the customers.
I would say you know other thanNew York, it's an airplane
where I spend a lot of my timethese days.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Right, Got it Well.
Thanks for sharing that.
So I think most of our audiencewill know who Swift is, but
maybe give us the high leveloverview of who Swift is and
kind of where you fit in thepayments market.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Swift's actually kind of fascinating.
So Swift is a cooperative.
We're probably one of the laststanding financial services
cooperatives, if not the laststanding one.
You know we all remember kindof Visa and MasterCard used to
be cooperatives and then ofcourse they went public.
So Swift is, you know, one ofthose longest standing ones,
from 1970 is when we werefounded, and so what we do is we
(03:28):
connect about 11,000 financialinstitutions across 200
countries to move messages,payments, seamlessly.
So just a couple of kind of funfacts, because I don't think
people always understand thescale of Swift and the impact of
Swift is we move the world'sGDP every two to three days
across our platform.
(03:48):
So huge volume and as anemployee it's kind of cool to
work at a place where you canhave such a big impact on global
money flows.
Another fun fact is, just froma scale perspective, the dollar
amount is the world's GDP everytwo to three days, but the
messaging it's 50 millionmessages plus a day, so just
tremendous kind of financialflow.
(04:10):
We're like the backbone of kindof financial services around
the world, so that's reallyexciting.
So the core product, of course,is messaging.
We are a messaging platform but, like many, you know
cooperatives and folks in thisspace.
You want to deliver value addedservices that sit on top of
that core messaging platform.
So think around tools forcompliance, fraud, speed and
(04:33):
transparency.
Where is the payment?
When's it going to arrive?
All of those are kind of corevalue-added solutions that you
know we provide to those 11,000financial institutions that we
provide to those 11,000financial institutions.
Employee-wise, we're a lotsmaller than people think For
the impact that I just walkedthrough.
We have 3,000 employees and sowe punch above our weight when
(04:57):
it comes to impact of what we'redelivering in the market.
We're headquartered in Belgiumever since the 1970s, but major
offices all around the world.
Again, we want to be where thebanks are and support them in
driving their business forward.
So, yeah, so in the end,swift's all about, you know,
securely, safely, at scalemoving those messages around the
(05:18):
world to drive the ecosystemforward.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Are you mainly sending these messages between
banks, or are there alsomerchants involved?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
No, it's between banks and fintechs.
So the ecosystem is there's twokind of sides.
It's between the payment sideand the security side.
So on the security side it'sstill financial institutions,
but it could be, you know,brokers and then on the payment
side it's traditional financialinstitutions.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Okay, maybe explain your competitive landscape.
So like, what differentiatesyou?
Who do you kind of competeagainst?
A little bit about that wouldbe awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah.
So from a competitiveperspective, we really just look
at the market and the ecosystemto.
You know how the banks want tomove money, so how we want to be
there to support the bankswhich are our owners, because
it's a cooperative and how theychoose to move money.
So banks may choose to movemoney on the SWIFT ecosystem.
They may choose to move moneywithin their own kind of
(06:16):
book-to-book transfers.
So if Citi has a branch in HongKong and Citi has the branch in
the US, they may not need tomove that through the SWIFT
ecosystem, but that's finebecause we want to support the
cooperative and how they chooseto move money.
So from a competitionperspective, we really don't
think of it that way.
What we want to do is providethe messaging tools to the
(06:39):
community to support how we wantto move the messages that move
the money in the way that theywant to do so.
So I would say less competitionand more listening to the
ecosystem and making sure we'reproviding those tools and those
interoperability options tosupport them in their end goals.
One example is like theblockchain right, you can start
(07:01):
a payment on chain, move it offchain, go back to chain.
We still want that swiftmessaging layer to be there to
support you on that journey.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Okay, and you mentioned something I want to
double click on is the valueadded services.
Could you maybe walk throughsome examples of what that would
be?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
A great example is like sanction screening.
So we've got tools in placewhere you know, as you're
looking at those 50 millionmessages a day, swift has robust
tools that can look at you know, does that hit a sanction
screen?
Share that back with thefinancial institution so they
can decide if they want to takeaction on that screening item.
(07:37):
So that's probably one of thebiggest ones.
The other thing too is you knowwe see patterns in the data, so
we'll see patterns around fraudand so we'll give advice back
to the community of hey, thisthing looks a little off, maybe
you want to revisit before yourelease the funds for that
transaction.
So a lot of that comes down tokind of the AI tools we have in
(07:58):
building, kind of those robustAI models that we can share back
with the community to drivethat impact forward for their
business.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Where do you see the payments industry headed, say,
in the next three to five years?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, that's.
It's really exciting.
So at Swift, it's such anexciting time to be in this
space because of the speed atwhich payments are moving faster
through this system.
So speed and transparency isone of the biggest innovations
we see.
If you think about payments afew years ago, it was kind of a
black box.
You would institute a paymentand you did not really know when
(08:33):
it was going to arrive at thebeneficiary, so Coca-Cola would
try to play a supplier, maybeget there five days, maybe three
days.
Now, with the big investmentsin what we call the GPI tracker
and the community reallyinvested in speed, we're now at
a place where 90% of paymentshit that end beneficiary within
(08:54):
one hour.
So speed and kind of digitalfirst has been transformed in
cross-border payments, which issuper exciting.
I think the other angle too forinnovation is ISO.
So with ISO coming in Novemberfor Swift it's already come for
Fed and many other marketinfrastructures.
(09:14):
But with the launch of ISO inNovember, that data layer is
just going to get richer.
And when you have a richer datalayer you're able to do a lot
more compliance screening,reducing errors, boosting
automation, which will drive thecommunity forward too.
So post-November we're going tosee a lot more innovation and
(09:37):
once that data gets richer, allthese new services can be
launched to support thecommunity and drive those
missions forward.
So that's super exciting.
Then I think, longer term,you're going to see again this
continued push for digital,whether that's tokenized assets,
tokenized money, stablecoin,which is kind of the buzzword of
(09:58):
the last couple of weeks.
We want to be there and supportthe community in how they want
to move money and support ourmessaging infrastructure to
evolve, infrastructure to evolveAgain, as I was saying earlier,
to move on-chain to off-chain,to back on-chain.
We want to be that backbone tosupport the community on that
journey.
So I think the digital side andthen, as I said, ai will be
(10:21):
embedded everywhere for myfuture innovation as you get
richer data and as you move tomore of kind of a tokenized
world.
So it's really interesting andreally exciting to see where
payments are going.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, you hit on all the core themes that I hear
every day.
I get three or four a weekpitches for people who want to
come on and talk about stablecoins.
I mean, when the Genius Actpassed, it was like it opened up
the floodgates.
Everybody's willing to talkabout it now, so that's a big
one.
And then, of course, ai is theother one.
Right, I think companies,organizations across the world
are trying to figure out howthey can use AI not only
internally, but with theirproducts and with their services
(11:01):
to other businesses.
So definitely huge themes.
Before we leave, talking aboutthe company and the market, you
have a big event every yearthat's coming up in about a
month, do you?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
want to maybe give that a plug.
Yeah, sibos is fantastic.
So this year, sibos is inFrankfurt at the end of
September.
It's going to be such anamazing event.
It's where the world comes totalk about all those core
innovations where we were justmentioning.
So there's going to be workstreams on AI, on digital assets
, on kind of innovation againstfraud and compliance.
(11:34):
So we're super excited.
I think we have recordattendance from a registration
perspective, so it will be greatto see everyone there and go on
that journey of learningtogether at Sibos.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And you recently had an announcement I assume you can
talk about it with AntFinancial about a digital wallet
that you're integrating intoeverything.
Can you kind of explain whatthat is?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah.
So that kind of speaks to ourinteroperability comment.
So the money moves in all sortsof ways, right, it's going to
move into.
It can move into a bank account, it can move into a wallet, it
can move into a mobile, it canmove into, you know, a mobile
phone, minute components incertain markets.
And so what SWIFT wants to dowith the community is we want to
support that movement of moneyand how the community wants to
(12:20):
move those funds.
And so in this case it's reallyexciting.
It's the launch of kind ofplugging into Ant Financial's
wallet ecosystem.
So if you're paying a TikTokinfluencer, that money could go
that way instead of having thisslower way of going through
their bank accounts.
So it's really kind of thinkingabout the new digital economy,
(12:41):
what those receivers of fundsare wanting and how they want to
be paid.
And at Swift we want to supportthe ecosystem of how people
want to get paid, how the bankswant to move those money in
those new ways.
And so that's a great exampleof an innovation for us and
we're really proud of thepartnership with Standard
Charter and Ant Financial.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Great.
Well, let's switch gears alittle bit and talk about you.
So, if you don't mind, walk usthrough your professional
journey and how you got to SWIFT.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, so I have spent my career in payments more than
two decades now in payments.
I started my career at Visa, soon the retail side, and I've
really seen the evolution.
I think this is one of my themesis I love the evolution of
digital and digitization inpayments.
So back then we even still hadthe knuckle busters.
If you remember the knucklebusters like you're in a taxi
and call them knuckle bustersbecause it actually really hurt
(13:36):
your knuckle and so think aboutthe evolution of that on the
retail side, all the way throughto where we are today, where
you pay with your face, you paywith your thumbprint, you paid
by tapping, and so thatevolution of what consumers are
asking for in digital paymentsis now, of course, coming on the
corporate side, and so for me,that was one of the really
(13:59):
exciting things I thought aboutwhen I thought about moving to
Swift is it's the next frontierof where digital is really going
to lead.
Because if you're a corporatetreasurer and you have this one
type of experience in this partof your life right the consumer
part of your life of how you paywith you know your face and how
(14:19):
you do online banking you'regoing.
Then you move into thecorporate side like, hey, I'm
the CFO of this corporate, whydoes it?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
operate like this?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Why don't I have all this, the transparency and the
tools that I had on the consumerside?
So that's one of the reallyexciting things for me that drew
me to Swift, because we're onthe cutting edge of that and
really trying to innovate Againone of those examples around GPI
and the tracker for speed andtransparency really innovate and
(14:48):
give them the tools to bringthat consumer experience into
kind of the corporate world, andso that was one of the things
that really drew me here I wouldlead as I said earlier, I'd
lead the North America market,which is Swift's largest market
around the world, and have thepleasure of kind of serving some
of the most robust financialinstitutions out here.
(15:09):
So in the North America market,you know, some of our key goals
are really to drive thatpayment innovation forward,
strengthen that connectivity,that interoperability and just
really keep pace with kind ofthe needs of what the largest
financial institutions in theworld need.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Well, what are some things you're passionate about?
So, maybe one work-relatedpassion and one personal passion
.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
To answer this.
I kind of have to tell like atiny little story, so bear with
me as I tell my story.
So I'm very passionate abouttwo core things.
I'm super passionate aboutwomen's education and mentorship
.
And the reason why and this isthe little story, is the reason
why is I was very close to mygreat-nana, who has since passed
away, but my great-nana wasborn in 1905 in the UK and she
(15:58):
had to leave school at the ageof 11.
If you've seen the show DowntonAbbey, she had to leave school
to go and work in one of thosemanners as what they call a
scullery maid, which is thelowest level, lowest level in
the manor.
Her job was to empty the ashesfrom the fireplaces at you know
(16:20):
odd hours of the day and whatshe did was she worked very hard
, she took all these risks andshe got all the way up to what
they called ladies made, whichis the highest level you can get
in the house, which normallyyou wouldn't feed from the
social economic group she hadcome from.
But she worked really hard toget there and then she got
(16:41):
pregnant, left and then startedthat started her family.
And what's interesting aboutthat story is she would tell me
so many times around likeeducation and the most important
thing is to focus on youreducation.
No one can take your educationaway from you.
Be curious, always be learning,take risks, raise your hand for
(17:03):
those opportunities.
And so that was one of thethings that's kind of always
grounded me is those messagesand the opportunities she did
not have, that I've had, as inmy life, the privilege I've had
in my life to be able to go tocollege, have a great education,
is to really pay that forwardin the community.
So really support, you know,girls in technology programs,
(17:27):
middle school programs.
I mentor, I speak at a lot ofmiddle schools and high schools
around encouraging women to gointo tech, staying in tech, and
then, specifically at Swift, youknow, growing that mentorship
community.
Because you need a village,right, you need a village to
grow.
And so one of the key thingsthat Swift does a great job of
actually on these two points ofeducation and mentorship, is
(17:51):
they have really robustcontinuing education
opportunities.
So don't just stop learningonce you get your job.
Take advantage.
We were just talking about AI,right, take advantage of any
course you can to continuelearning and growing.
Then the second thing that theydo a great job, of which I lead
for the North America market,is the women's leadership group,
(18:12):
so our business resource group,where we've got robust
mentoring in place, a lot ofopportunities to share from each
other.
Grow, you know, take thoserisks, get that coaching.
So those are that's kind of thesecond bucket, I would say.
So women's education andmentorship are really important
to me.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Okay, do you feel like those are personal and
business kind of intertwined?
As far as passions go, yeah, Iwould.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I would say there I blend my lives.
So I would say what I have athome with you know what I do on
my, with supporting my daughter,supporting my son in this next
generation kind of comes alsointo the workforce.
So I think it, I think itoverlaps.
For me, for sure, it's a deeppassion.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Okay, okay.
Well, we just had the WomenLeaders in Payments month, which
is July every year, so we justhad that and we talked a lot
about more on the mentorshipside than the education side,
but we spent a lot of time withat 14 different guests on.
We'll definitely need to haveyou on next year.
Would love to already get thaton the books, because I think it
would be great to hear yourstories about what you've done
(19:17):
in that area, obviously, sinceit's a passion of yours stories
about what you've done in thatarea, obviously, since it's a
passion of yours.
Well, one final question beforewe wrap up.
If someone comes to you maybethey're right out of college,
maybe they're changing careersand they want to get into
payments.
As someone that's been inpayments 20 years or more, what
would you tell them they need todo to be successful in this
industry?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, that's such a good question.
So I would say in general, myoverall advice for payments or
just whatever field you want togo into is really like trust
yourself more and don't wait forpermission.
We all have imposter syndrome.
I'm not ready, I don't have theanswers, I can't do that role
(19:59):
or project.
I can't do that project.
And my advice for everyone inpayments and across industries
is continue that deep learningand bet on yourself.
Bet on yourself, raise yourhand, take those risks, and that
will really kind of drive youforward.
Early in my career I was reallyhesitant to do that.
(20:22):
I would be hesitant to speak up, go for opportunities, because
I felt that I just needed moreexperience.
Lee, you just need to crackthese two more things before you
raise your hand for thatproject or that new role.
And then, looking back, yourealize, like no one has it
figured out, no one's got allthe answers.
(20:45):
So what you really need to dois just raise your hand, jump in
, leverage your community ofyour support, your tribe, and
really go for it.
Because, like, the sooner youbelieve in yourself, the sooner
others will too.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I think that's great advice and a great way to wrap
up the show.
So, before we go, is thereanything else you'd like to
cover?
Any final comments or thoughts?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
No, just.
Thank you so much for having meand for doing this amazing
podcast.
I think it's great to hear.
I've watched a number of yourinterviews.
It's so great to hear from allthe various leaders across
different industries andinstitutions, so thank you for
keeping this going.
I think it's a great treat forall of us to have access to.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Oh, great, well, I really appreciate that.
Well, lee, thank you so muchfor your time.
I know it's very valuable.
So again, thank you for beinghere today.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
My pleasure, thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And to all your listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story
next story.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
channels as well.
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