EBA Clearing has teamed with interbank network Swift to launch IWS-Browse, an interactive workstation (IWS) that enables banks to monitor and control their payment flows on the Euro1/Step1 platform and across other market infrastructures.
Following pilot tests with 16 EBA Clearing banks the first phase of IWS-Browse is now live. The system will eventually replace the current Clearing Workstation.
IWS-Browse is based on the same technical standard that will be used by other market infrastructures, such as Target2. All Euro1 and Step1 banks are expected to finalise their migration from the current Clearing Workstation to the new IWS by the end of December 2007.
Oliver Bieser, responsible for euro clearing system IT at Deutsche Bank says the IWS is "a state-of-the-art application based on market standards and with a better response time than today’s Workstation, as well as with lower costs for all banks".
EBA Clearing says the IWS will cut costs on messaging, as the use of SwiftNet Browse, InterAct and FileAct comes at a considerably lower price than the FIN messages supported by the current Clearing Workstation. In some cases banks could see costs cut by 70%.
The second phase of the IWS project will focus on developing an application programming interface (API) that will enable banks to integrate data into their back office applications. The API will be available from mid-2007.