Reserve Bank of India introduced Swift messaging system in India in 1990 and it became operational in 1991. All Banks were forced to take the system even though it was very costly and the banks were in infant stage of computerization. The World Bank and IMF wanted the system introduced as the Banks in the West were already computerized and wanted the banks in the world to send them computer enabled messages so that it can be automated and manual intervention can be reduced.
At that time worldwide Telex and Telegrams were in use as the best means of communication but they had their own drawbacks and one of the prime focuses of this alternate system was to automate the TELEX messages. SWIFT brought together the Banking community and harnessed the developments in telecommunications and utilized them for international trade and messaging from one country to another in a big way. They could standardize all types of transactions and format the message types to be exchanged between two banks of different countries.
During the introduction of Swift the cost of two servers came to almsot Rs. 1 crore, the motorola codex modems costing 80,000/ each, and the software cost which was additional. The original swift ST 400 package purchased by banks were having both swift and telex messaging facility. In case message did not go through Swift it can be routed through Telex. But this telex function did not work from day 1 due to technical problem with DOT and many banks exchanged this software with PC Connect or taking additional licencce of ST400 for their foreign branches. It was a transformation and a change which simplified the messaging procedure and was easy to operate. THE MESSAGE STANDARDS were modified and changed many times as per the suggestions of the user community:
In the beginning the following hardware and software were available in India.
- Digital company's VAX 3400 servers and VMS operating system. This was serviced by Digital Company and CMC of India.
- 1) ST 200 or 2) ST400 software for swift operations.
Another software is NOVA Swift which was available and it was taken by few banks. Many Banks took ST400 and few of them took ST200 software marketed by Swift SCRL. The support for ST200 and ST 400 were provided by FINLINK, a software support firm. There was branch connectivity software PC Connect. But initially all banks took the main CBT product and simultaneously used the telex as well for communications. The PC Connect was also new and costly.
After initial teething troubles were over banks wanted to connect their branches with swift. Transmatic systems a vendor of telex was marketing SWAP a similar product like PC Connect for branch connectivity and it was working properly and the cost was low as around Rs 25,000/-per connection. The banks went for the same. Here the messages sent by the branch was sent to CBT by dial up mode using PSTN line and it was transported to the main server using batch input/output method. The problem was the messages going twice if the batch were not renamed after use. This was a risk and there was no alternative to it.
To be continued...
Contributed By:
Mr. K.R.S. Mani
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