SWIFT Hopes to Conquer Fear of "New Realities"

Now that host country Singapore has been given the "all-clear" signal by the World Health Organization, SWIFT's Sibos 2003 conference seems all set to proceed as scheduled, from October 20 to 24. The apropos theme: "New Realities."

This year, the speaker line-up includes Brett Goodin, president of Fidelity Investment Management Asia/Pacific; Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Senior Minister of State, Trade and Industry; and Vincent Cheng, CEO of Hang Seng Bank and Group General Manager of HSBC. Sixty-six other speakers have also confirmed their participation.

The annual Sibos conference was scheduled to take place in Singapore in October 2001, but was canceled due to post-September 11 security concerns. The final go/no-go decision for 2003 Sibos will be announced June 27. Updates can be found on the Web at the organization's web site, www.swift.com.