International transaction specialists SWIFT has announced the appointment of Javier Pérez-Tasso as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Pérez-Tasso has been a member of the SWIFT Executive team for the past seven years and currently serves as Chief Executive Americas & UK region.
From 1 July 2019 he will take up his new position in the firm following the announcement that Gottfried Leibbrandt intended to leave the company back in December 2018.
SWIFT Chairman Yawar Shah, noted: “Javier‘s track record of impressive leadership, coupled with his in-depth understanding of the company and its business, means that he is expertly positioned for this new role.
“I am confident that his appointment will ensure that SWIFT can continue to build on its tradition of excellence and innovation in support of the global financial community, while also enabling acceleration of its endorsed strategy.”
The statement said that the appointment comes after a “comprehensive internal and external search conducted by the Board’s Human Resources Committee” along with utilising advice from an unnamed professional search firm.
Pérez-Tasso first joined SWIFT in 1995 and was appointed Chief Executive, Americas & UK region in September 2015.
He was also an Executive sponsor of SWIFT’s Customer Security Programme from 2016 to 2018, helping to formulate and lead SWIFT’s response to the growing cyber challenge facing the community.
Prior to that, Pérez-Tasso served as Chief Marketing Officer, a role in which he was responsible for developing SWIFT’s current five-year strategy.
Commenting on his appointment, Pérez-Tasso said: “I thank the SWIFT Board for its trust and feel privileged to lead SWIFT and serve its customers as CEO.
“I am fortunate to start this mandate building on Gottfried’s strong legacy, and I look forward to maintaining our focus on operational excellence as well as to accelerating SWIFT’s transformation during a period of unprecedented change and opportunity for the community.”
SWIFT provides a secure network that enables more than 10,000 financial institutions in 212 different countries to send and receive information about financial transactions to each other.
In March 2019, SWIFT recorded an average of 33.58 million FIN messages per day and witnessed a 9.2% growth in traffic versus March 2018, bringing the year-to-date growth for the company to +6.1%.
Shah concluded: “The Board joins me in thanking Gottfried for his extraordinary dedication and service and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. SWIFT has become a stronger, more agile company under his leadership – defining, establishing and delivering on a bold agenda.”
“I look forward to working with Javier to build on this, as SWIFT continues to serve the banking community as its Fintech.”
