Brussels and Fairfax, VA October 4, 2002 Integration software provider webMethods Inc. and industry-owned cooperative SWIFT have announced a partnership to give financial institutions a business method for automating payment processes with corporate customers. According to the companies, the partnership was forged to help financial institutions leverage their existing investments in online infrastructure to overcome barriers to automated payment processes with their corporate customers.
While financial institutions have transacted with other financial institutions using solutions like SWIFT FIN, which webMethods supports, there is no universally-accepted method to support Straight-Through-Processing (STP) for payment processes between banks and their corporate customers. Banks are using a combination of electronic and manual processes to engage with corporate clients for payment transactions and assurances.
To address this gap, webMethods said it has developed support for the SWIFT TrustAct and e-paymentsPlus solutions, providing financial institutions with a solution for connecting with corporate clients' back-end systems. WebMethods explained the solution allows corporate businesses to integrate electronic payment processes with their supply chain management and back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The solution ties in automatically with the inter-bank payment processes that generate MT103s; webMethods and SWIFT will jointly promote the integrated solution.
"By combining strengths with webMethods, financial institutions now have a tremendously valuable service offering for integrated payments initiation with their corporate customers," said Johan Kestens, head of new business development and member of the Executive Committee at SWIFT.
