Bankdata adopts Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT to transform its payments processing.

VIENNA, Austria, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced at Sibos 2008 that Bankdata, a leading provider of IT services in Denmark owned by a consortium of 15 banks, is transforming its payments processing with a new payments platform using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 including Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT and BizTalk FileAct and InterAct Adapters. The solution will help enable faster payment processing times, reduce overall operating costs for Bankdata and bring significant cost efficiencies to each of Bankdata's member banks, delivering deeper industry value. The project went live on time at the end of January 2008 and is part of the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) Scheme, which enables organizations to make Euro credit transfers domestically and across borders within a maximum of three days.

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Bankdata is transforming its payments system in multiple phases. Four member banks are now sending Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payments via the Microsoft technology-based platform, and since June 2008, Bankdata has been able to send SEPA payments via home banking applications, significantly increasing the number of payments being processed.

'We invested in our back-office operations to respond to SEPA deadlines and the fast-changing payments landscape in Europe,' said Soren Vesterager, department manager at Bankdata. 'By allowing us to simplify the back office, Microsoft BizTalk Server has provided our member banks with reduced transaction processing costs. When we started this SEPA project, we realized our existing system could not support Extensible Markup Language (XML) messages, which was critical for us to meet SCT requirements. We then evaluated our options and found that Microsoft technology could support XML, along with the core functionality of BizTalk Server, which handles our business processing needs and offers an adapter to SWIFTNet FileAct. By using Microsoft technology, we were able to build an agile, fast, stable, highly secure and cost-effective solution, and, because we have other solutions using BizTalk Server, it made sense for us to put them all on the same platform.'

'Many of our customers are looking to modernize their SWIFT infrastructure, simplify their back office and improve the interoperability of payments systems with legacy applications,' said Sheida Hadji-Ashrafi, worldwide industry manager, Payments at Microsoft. 'To do this, banks turn to Microsoft for our industry-leading business process management and advanced enterprise application integration technology and for our deep understanding of the issues that the payments industry faces. Microsoft is pleased to offer the platform of choice for Bankdata and will continue to provide innovative, enterprise solutions to help ensure that its payments system has the agility and scalability needed to compete in the ever-changing payments marketplace.'

In the future, Bankdata will consider extending its enterprise payments platform and leveraging its Microsoft technology investment to implement SEPA direct debit schemes.

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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.