In its efforts to assess the decline in correspondent banking relationships, the FSB has published an update using SWIFT data. Some of the main findings are as follows:
- The number of active correspondents continued its decline in the first half of 2017;
- The number of active corridors continued to fall, however the rate of decline decreased between 2016 and 2017 (with the exception of the Americas (excl. North America)); and
- The decline in the number of correspondent banks did not cause a decline in the volume or value of messages. This may however be due to the lengthening of the payments chain.