Correspondent banking, SWIFT, and the geographies of financial infrastructure : technological and organizational change in cross-border payments
(2023)
- Author
- Gary Robinson
- Promoter
- Ben Derudder (UGent) and Sabine Dörry
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- This thesis examines the impacts of technical and organizational change on the geographies of finance via infrastructure for cross-border payments, employing a qualitative methodology of semi-structured expert interviews. The study finds that SWIFT’s messaging system together with the correspondent banking system, a decentralized global network of bilateral contracts between banks, remain a geographically and historically foundational sociotechnical infrastructure connecting IFCs. To stave off fintech challengers and preserve banks’ incumbency, SWIFT’s system is platformizing with the aim of changing banks’ business models from fee-extraction towards economic use of transaction data. Collaborative action in bringing about change across a global network is a key finance industry agency for maintaining its collective dominance. SWIFT’s cooperative organizational form is a significant locus for this agency, engendering trust as a relational aspect of power to resolve tensions among actors and processes across scales. Specialized infrastructure is instrumental in how the geographies of finance are (re)shaped.
- Dit proefschrift analyseert de effecten van technische en organisatorische veranderingen in de financiële sector op de geografie van de infrastructuur voor grensoverschrijdende betalingen, en dit door middel van semi-gestructureerde interviews met financiële experten. De studie stelt vast dat het berichtensysteem van SWIFT, samen met het systeem van bilaterale contracten tussen correspondentbanken, een fundamentele sociotechnische infrastructuur blijft die internationale financiële centra met elkaar verbindt. Om fintech-uitdagers af te weren en de gevestigde bancaire orde te behouden, wordt het SWIFT-systeem geplatformiseerd met als doel de bedrijfsmodellen van banken te veranderen naar het economisch gebruik van transactiegegevens. Samenwerken in een wereldwijd netwerk bij het tot stand brengen van regulatieveranderingen is een belangrijk middel van de financiële sector om zijn collectieve dominantie te behouden. De coöperatieve organisatievorm van SWIFT is een belangrijke locus voor deze samenwerking, waarbij vertrouwen als relationeel machtsaspect ontstaat om spanningen tussen actoren en processen op verschillende schaalniveaus op te lossen.
- Keywords
- finance, financial geography, financial infrastructure, payments, SWIFT, correspondent banking, cross-border payments, international financial centres, financial networks, geopolitics, geoeconomics, qualitative research methods, elite interviews, expert interviews, trust, clubs, governance, technological change, human geography, economic geography, LinkedIn, interview methods, infrastructure, money, banking
Downloads
-
(...).pdf
- full text (Published version)
- |
- UGent only
- |
- |
- 2.44 MB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01H2FKH72C2CCHFN1K193DDZC0
- MLA
- Robinson, Gary. Correspondent Banking, SWIFT, and the Geographies of Financial Infrastructure : Technological and Organizational Change in Cross-Border Payments. Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg, 2023.
- APA
- Robinson, G. (2023). Correspondent banking, SWIFT, and the geographies of financial infrastructure : technological and organizational change in cross-border payments. Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg, Ghent, Belgium ; Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg.
- Chicago author-date
- Robinson, Gary. 2023. “Correspondent Banking, SWIFT, and the Geographies of Financial Infrastructure : Technological and Organizational Change in Cross-Border Payments.” Ghent, Belgium ; Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg: Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Robinson, Gary. 2023. “Correspondent Banking, SWIFT, and the Geographies of Financial Infrastructure : Technological and Organizational Change in Cross-Border Payments.” Ghent, Belgium ; Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg: Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg.
- Vancouver
- 1.Robinson G. Correspondent banking, SWIFT, and the geographies of financial infrastructure : technological and organizational change in cross-border payments. [Ghent, Belgium ; Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg]: Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg; 2023.
- IEEE
- [1]G. Robinson, “Correspondent banking, SWIFT, and the geographies of financial infrastructure : technological and organizational change in cross-border payments,” Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg, Ghent, Belgium ; Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg, 2023.
@phdthesis{01H2FKH72C2CCHFN1K193DDZC0,
abstract = {{This thesis examines the impacts of technical and organizational change on the geographies of finance via infrastructure for cross-border payments, employing a qualitative methodology of semi-structured expert interviews. The study finds that SWIFT’s messaging system together with the correspondent banking system, a decentralized global network of bilateral contracts between banks, remain a geographically and historically foundational sociotechnical infrastructure connecting IFCs. To stave off fintech challengers and preserve banks’ incumbency, SWIFT’s system is platformizing with the aim of changing banks’ business models from fee-extraction towards economic use of transaction data. Collaborative action in bringing about change across a global network is a key finance industry agency for maintaining its collective dominance. SWIFT’s cooperative organizational form is a significant locus for this agency, engendering trust as a relational aspect of power to resolve tensions among actors and processes across scales. Specialized infrastructure is instrumental in how the geographies of finance are (re)shaped.}},
author = {{Robinson, Gary}},
keywords = {{finance,financial geography,financial infrastructure,payments,SWIFT,correspondent banking,cross-border payments,international financial centres,financial networks,geopolitics,geoeconomics,qualitative research methods,elite interviews,expert interviews,trust,clubs,governance,technological change,human geography,economic geography,LinkedIn,interview methods,infrastructure,money,banking}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{XIV, 155}},
publisher = {{Ghent University. Faculty of Sciences ; University of Luxembourg}},
school = {{Ghent University}},
title = {{Correspondent banking, SWIFT, and the geographies of financial infrastructure : technological and organizational change in cross-border payments}},
year = {{2023}},
}