Infrastructure

API-First Connectivity

The Messaging Hub plugs into SWIFT's Zero Footprint stack via Alliance Cloud and the Microgateway, runs a local SWIFTRef API proxy, and exposes REST endpoints to your back-office systems. One platform, three API channels, no legacy Alliance integration boxes in your data centre.

The Shift

SWIFT is going API-first

SWIFT's Zero Footprint strategy moves the messaging gateway off the bank's premises and into Alliance Cloud. Back-office systems no longer drop files to a local Alliance Access server -- they call RESTful APIs via the Swift Messaging API, optionally fronted by the Swift Microgateway, a single on-prem proxy that aggregates every SWIFT API service.

On the reference data side, SWIFT is retiring the legacy SWIFTRef files at end of November 2026. SWIFTRef Evolution standardises the model across BICs, identifiers, LEIs, participants, SEPA, SSI, calendars and codes, and exposes them through APIs.

And the Alliance Connect portfolio itself is moving toward virtual and SD-WAN-based connectivity -- Alliance Connect Virtual on Premises VPN replaces the SRX hardware VPNs that have sat in bank data centres for years.

This is the biggest connectivity refresh in two decades. The institutions that win it are the ones that pick an architecture where every channel is an API -- north (back-office), south (SWIFT), and side (reference data) -- and where the bank's messaging logic (validation, translation, routing, archive, audit) lives in one platform rather than scattered across the boxes that are about to be retired.

Three API channels, one Hub

↑

Back-office → PMH

PMH REST API for payment capture, configuration, search, status

↓

PMH → SWIFT

Swift Messaging API via Microgateway / Alliance Cloud

↔

PMH ↔ SWIFTRef

Local proxy mirroring api.swift.com for BIC, IBAN, SSI lookups

How PMH Plays

Three API channels, one messaging brain

The Hub becomes the on-prem messaging logic the bank keeps when SIL, IPLA and local Alliance integration disappear -- talking to SWIFT, back-office systems and reference data over APIs only.

Channel 1

PMH → SWIFT via Microgateway & Alliance Cloud

The Hub connects to SWIFT through the Swift Microgateway sitting in front of Alliance Cloud. No Alliance Access partner, no SIL, no IPLA -- the SWIFT-managed gateway carries every MT and MX message, and the Hub talks to it over the Swift Messaging API.

Outbound MT and MX over the Swift Messaging API
Inbound messages consumed from the API queue, routed and archived
End-to-end non-repudiation when the Microgateway runs over the SIPN
No CSCF surface area for legacy IPLA/SIL components on your side

Channel 2

PMH ↔ SWIFTRef local API proxy

Prowide ships a companion application that loads SWIFTRef Evolution data (BICs, identifiers, LEIs, participants, SEPA, SSI, calendars, codes) into a local database and serves a REST API matching SWIFT's own /swiftrefdata/v5/ endpoints. PMH points to localhost instead of api.swift.com -- zero application changes.

Drop-in API compatibility with swiftref_api.yaml
Cuts external API spend and removes the network hop on every BIC lookup
Works air-gapped or on slow links -- lookups never leave the perimeter
Same data model SWIFT publishes; daily/weekly refresh from SWIFTRef files

Channel 3

PMH REST API for back-office & tooling

On the north side, the Hub exposes its own RESTful API so payment systems, treasury, core banking and operations tooling can submit, query, configure and reconcile through HTTP — no MQ hops, no file drops, no shared databases.

Submit MT and MX payments with JWT-authenticated POST
Search, status, archive retrieval and operator actions over HTTP
Configure routing rules, validation packs and translations programmatically
Coexists with IBM MQ, RabbitMQ, SFTP and hot folders for legacy systems

End-to-End

Inside the bank, only the Hub

The Alliance stack moves out. The Hub stays in -- as the only piece of messaging software the bank still operates and as the single integration point for every API channel.

Payments back-office

Treasury / FX

Core banking

Ops tooling

↓

PMH REST API

Prowide Messaging Hub

Capture Validate Translate (MT ↔ MX) Route Archive & Audit REST API

↓

Swift Messaging API

Swift Microgateway

↓

Alliance Cloud

↓

SWIFTNet

↔

/swiftrefdata/v5/

SWIFTRef local API proxy

↑

SWIFTRef Evolution files

Zero Footprint, Not Zero Software

What leaves the data centre -- and what stays

"Zero footprint" means no SWIFT-branded boxes on premises. It does not mean no messaging software at all -- the bank still owns validation, translation, routing, archive and audit. That is the Hub's job.

What leaves

Alliance Access / Entry message partners

SIL (Swift Integration Layer) and IPLA

SRX hardware VPN appliances (over the SD-WAN transition)

Local SWIFTRef file processing scripts and ad-hoc loaders

Custom MQ bridges and file drops between back-office and Alliance

CSCF scope and patch burden for legacy SWIFT software

→

What stays (and the Hub owns it)

All MT and MX validation -- SRG, CBPR+, HVPS+, regional clearings

MT ↔ MX translation with audit-grade traceability

Routing logic, 4-eyes authorization, business workflows

Centralised archive, full-text search, operator UI

BIC / IBAN / SSI lookups via the local SWIFTRef proxy

REST API surface for every back-office integration point

Why It Matters

The integration architecture for the next decade

Smaller attack & audit surface

No IPLA, no SIL, no Alliance Access on premises means fewer components in CSCF scope and fewer SWIFT-branded patch cycles to chase.

Cloud-ready without lock-in

Alliance Cloud handles SWIFT connectivity; the Hub runs on Linux / containers / Kubernetes / AWS ECS on infrastructure you control. Move workloads without changing integration code.

One integration vocabulary

Back-office systems, SWIFTRef, and SWIFT itself all speak HTTP/JSON through the Hub. New services become an API client project, not an integration project.

Deployment

API-first, your infrastructure

The Hub runs on the bank's chosen platform. SWIFT keeps the gateway. Reference data sits next to the Hub on the same private network.

SWIFT side

Alliance Cloud + Swift Microgateway, consumed via Swift Messaging API. Optionally over SIPN for end-to-end non-repudiation.

Hub side

Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes or AWS ECS Fargate. PostgreSQL, SQL Server or Oracle.

Reference data

SWIFTRef proxy runs as a Spring Boot service next to the Hub. Loads SWIFTRef Evolution files; serves /swiftrefdata/v5/.

Back-office

REST API with JWT for new integrations; MQ, SFTP, hot folders kept for systems that still need them.

High availability

Built-in clustering and distributed caching. Horizontal scaling without downtime.

Security model

Role-based access, data segregation per business unit, full audit on every API call.

Going API-first with SWIFT?

Talk to our team about plugging the Messaging Hub into your Zero Footprint, Alliance Cloud or Microgateway setup.