Companies embrace SWIFT after credit crisis

We've noted often that hedge funds have been trending toward multiple prime brokerages for years, even before the credit crunch. But we can now say the same for companies, who seem to be trending toward multiple banking partners. It certainly makes sense. No company wants to have all their eggs at one bank; we've seen how even the top banks can get hit. No one can take counterparty security for granted these days.

One sign of this: The growing willingness by companies to use the SWIFT bank messaging network. A Financial Insights report has found that half of North American corporate treasurers are now interested in using SWIFT. That compares with less than 15 percent big corporations last year, according to Treasury & Risk. SWIFT provides a secure channel to communicate with multiple banks. SWIFT launched Alliance Lite, last year, a low-cost way to connect via SWIFT, which seems to have won some converts.

For more:
- here's the Treasury & Risk item
- here's more from Finextra