Leonard Schrank, the long-serving chief executive of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the industry-owned financial messaging service, is to step down in two years' time.

Schrank, who has headed Swift for 12 years, signed a final three-year extension to his contract last year, although this was not revealed until last week. His contract expires in 2007. He told Financial News: "It's been a hell of a ride. I'm sort of looking forward to the end. It's healthy to pass to new leadership after that amount of time, especially as Swift will have a solid foundation."