India and Subcontinents Regional Conference

The SWIFT India and Subcontinents Regional Conference 2016 will gather the local community representing financial institutions, market infrastructures, regulators, multinational corporations, and other industry experts to discuss pertinent issues concerning the nation and whether it can deepen its reforms and continue its impressive growth trajectory in the face of global economic volatility. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is one of the most important economic and geopolitical organisations consisting of eight nations (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) in South Asia, and is the 3rd largest in the world, after the United States and China, and the 5th largest in terms of nominal GDP. The SAARC makes up 21% of the world’s total population, with India making up 70% of the area and population amongst the eight countries. With such a vast regional coverage, there is a continuous drive across the region to boost economic growth and deepen integration for prosperity and harmonisation. Combined efforts within the SAARC countries are necessary in leading the region to an era of uniformity in trade payments which will in turn open the opportunity of uniform payment systems for inter-border transactions. Whilst regionalisation is a noble goal, each of these nations need to first modernise their payment systems, and embrace technology disruption in order to achieve financial inclusion. This year’s agenda will focus on the latest developments on market infrastructure trends in payments and securities, financial inclusion, standards, as well as digitisation. Read more on www.swift.com.