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Adds SEPA transaction processing to existing payments infrastructure

Microsoft and Fundtech have unveiled SEPA Integration Suite, a new suite of SOA (service-oriented architecture) services that adds SEPA transaction processing to a bank’s existing payments infrastructure.

The companies claim that by leveraging their existing payments infrastructure, banks will save time and money, adding transaction processing capabilities for both SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debits (SDD). Corporate clients will be able to send a single stream of payments, in various formats, to a centralised payment service, streamlining their accounts payable operations.

The companies said that the infrastructure uses Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and BizTalk Server 2009, an integration, messaging and business activity monitoring system. Its web-enabled user interface is built with Microsoft Silverlight technology, offering customisation capabilities.

The SEPA Integration Suite supports multi-country deployments, and offers mandate management functionality. Its middleware transforms, organises and routes transactions between legacy and SEPA formats using ISO 20022 XML messaging standards, the companies said.

Susan Hauser, vice president of worldwide financial services at Microsoft, said: “Our alliance with Fundtech substantially expands our partner ecosystem for payments by helping our banking clients meet the imperatives of cost-cutting and innovation in these challenging economic times.

“Fundtech’s commitment to Microsoft’s banking and payments solutions leverages our familiar mission-critical enterprise platforms, including Microsoft BizTalk Server with the BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT as the payments messaging infrastructure - a solution that has been certified SWIFTReady over the past six years.”

Computer Business Review