LFSBL receives SWIFT certification on SIP for 2020

Lanka Financial Services Bureau Ltd. (LFSBL) records yet another milestone in 2021 through the SIP certification. LFSBL has been certified by SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) for 2020 as being compliant with SIP (Shared Infrastructure Program) for the sixth successive year. 

This milestone has been maintained consistently from SIPv1-2013 as a SWIFT Certified Shared Infrastructure. In a recent announcement to the public, LFSBL shared that it has been listed in the Asia Pacific category of SWIFT Service Bureau Directory.

A stringent selection precedes the listing on the Service Bureau Directory which is limited to service bureaux that have successfully finalised the certification process and an independent and verifiable authentication of the same. 

Service Bureau Directory lists a total of seven service providers within Asia and Pacific and LFSBL stands among regional heavy weights including Bottomline Technologies Ltd. (Singapore), BSE Technologies Ltd. (India), China Construction Bank (China), JSOL Corporation (Japan), Mitsubishi Research Institute DCS (Japan), Nelito Systems (India). The comprehensive service provider listing can be accessed via the official website of Shared Infrastructure Programme for the Service Bureau. 

According to SWIFT standards the SIP program is mandatory for all SWIFT Service Bureaus (Shared Infrastructures) in the world to be compliant for the company to continue its business of providing SWIFT connectivity and interfaces to customers in the respective market. These standards are specified by SWIFT and updated annually to suit the changing environment, technologies, cyber security, resilience, change management and availability of in-house expertise to manage SWIFT operations. SWIFT Shared Infrastructure Program is connected with the CSCF (Customer Security Control Framework) which details the requirement of compliance for the SWIFT customers who uses the SWIFT connectivity and services

In today’s financial and business world the cyber-attacks have become an imminent threat, disrupting even the sophisticated networks in the financial community. SWIFT users, largely within the financial infrastructure community, are responsible for robustly protecting their networks from such disruptive threats which underpins the necessity to be continuously vigilant and proactive. 

The guidelines of the SWIFT Customer Security Controls Framework (CSCF) which illustrates a set of mandatory and advisory security controls for SWIFT users. The Customer Security Programme (CSP) has been introduced to support customers in the fight against cyber fraud and other relevant threats. The CSP describes the framework for a common set of security controls designed to help customers to secure their local environments and to foster a more secure financial ecosystem.

The ‘Security and Operational Framework’ establishes a set of mandatory security controls for service bureaux participating in the SIP (Shared Infrastructure Programme). The SIP is based on the security and operational controls based on five central framework objectives. Three objectives, Secure Your Environment, Know and Limit Access, and Detect and Respond, are related to and are in full alignment with the Customer Security Controls Framework while extended to cope with Client-Supporting Security. Two objectives, Maintain SWIFT Services Availability and Limit Customer Business Disruption, are devoted to Operational Excellence.

LFSBL has made substantial investments in the enhancements of infrastructure and standards of the SIP program to be compliant and to achieve operational excellence to provide an environment which has the security in full alignment and uninterrupted availability of the SWIFT Shared Infrastructures; Connectivity and Messaging for the Sri Lankan financial community, including the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, major state banks, leading licensed commercial banks, and primary dealers. LFSBL is a ‘Corporate Cooperative Business Model’ which is owned by 22 financial institutions, setup in 2007 to mitigate the ‘transactional cost’ of the community and to save foreign exchange for the country.

LFSBL Chairman Lakshman Silva added in his remarks, “It is a significant achievement for the Sri Lankan SWIFT community and the financial sector which consolidates the company’s position among countries such as Singapore, Japan, China and India.” 

Mihindu Rajaratne further added, “The pressure on compliance has been a perfect opportunity to improve and continuously consolidate the quality of the infrastructure, in terms of security, change management, business continuity, network availability and accumulated specialised knowledge and know-how. The Chairman and CEO collectively stated that the contribution of SWIFT Operations Manager Hasitha and the technical team has been instrumental in achieving this milestone.