Two new customer contracts:
biz.yahoo.com
Mercator Undertakes New SWIFT ISO 15022 Projects, Continues Leadership in Financial Services Integration
Thursday February 27, 8:32 am ET
Over Two-Dozen Financial Services Institutions Use Mercator to Comply with SWIFT Initiative
WILTON, Conn. & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 2003-- Mercator Software, Inc. (Nasdaq:MCTR - News), today announced two new customer contracts to provide compliance capability for the SWIFT organization's new ISO 15022 securities message format. Two leading UK-based financial services companies - the wholesale and retail bank Helaba, and asset manager First State Investments - will use Mercator InsideSWIFT(TM) to enable the new ISO 15022 message format for sending and receiving securities transactions.
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All financial institutions handling securities messages through the SWIFT network must be able to send and receive the new ISO 15022 message format by May 31, 2003. The ISO 15022 message format will improve straight through processing (STP) rates by enhancing the quality and speed of data throughout the securities transaction and settlement processes.
In addition to enabling ISO 15022 capability, Mercator InsideSWIFT(TM) provides functionality to help financial institutions meet the guidelines established by the Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG) outlining country and custodian specific standards for cross-border settlement. Mercator InsideSWIFT(TM) helps financial institutions meet both the new ISO 15022 and SMPG standards without the costly and time-consuming need to re-engineer back-office systems.
The Mercator® solution is based on proven market-leading integration technology for financial services. Mercator leverages existing information technology without complex systems changes, enabling the fast and efficient compliance with government mandates and industry standards.
First State
Greg Cooper, Chief Operating Officer at First State said, "Mercator InsideSWIFT(TM) has helped us reduce operational risk across dealing settlement systems by creating efficient and consistent messaging."
Mercator is enabling asset manager, First State in the UK to transform settlement instruction messages into the new SWIFT ISO 15022 message format. Proprietary outbound settlement instruction messages from Hi-Portfolio, an asset management system, will be converted into the SWIFT ISO 15022 format, while inbound ISO 15022 compliant custodian settlement notification messages are converted into the required proprietary format.
Helaba
Richard Chester, Systems Development Manager at Helaba commented, "Mercator has enabled us to quickly implement a solution to conform with the ISO 15022 standard."
Helaba, a wholesale and retail bank headquartered in Frankfurt, has selected Mercator to provide ISO 15022 SMPG compliant messaging for 6 markets including UK, Italy, France and Spain. The Mercator solution will enable message transformation to support the new ISO 15022 message format and will integrate their securities trading back-office system GLOSS with the SWIFT Network. Using Mercator means Helaba will be able to send the new securities message format.
Thracy Varvoglis, Senior Vice President of the Industry Solutions Group at Mercator commented on the announcement: "Our SWIFT ISO 15022 work for Helaba and First State brings the total number of clients using Mercator to address this industry initiative to 25 and is testament to Mercator's unrivalled experience in ISO 15022 migration. By virtue of our experience and our close relationship with SWIFT we are uniquely positioned to assist these organizations."
Mercator Is the Solution of Choice for Leading Financial Services Organizations
Mercator is a proven leader in financial services. $100 billion of SWIFT traffic goes through Mercator daily; 40% of London securities transactions are powered by Mercator; eight of the 12 GSTPA pilots that chose a vendor solution selected Mercator; and 100 international banks, 70 investment managers, 40 broker dealers and 10 global custodians rely on Mercator for Straight Through Processing (STP). Mercator Inside Financial Services solutions, including, Mercator InsideSWIFT; Mercator InsidePayments; Mercator InsideFSManager.; Mercator InsideSTP; and Mercator InsideGemini., seamlessly integrate risk-bearing transactions between banks, securities firms, and other financial service providers, delivering comprehensive straight through processing that reduces risks and increases operational efficiencies. |
