The European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT) is working with standards body Twist and interbank network Swift to help develop a new set of payments messaging standards.
The co-operative agreement will focus on Eact's Corporate Action on Standards (Cast) initiative and the development of other international payment standards.
The Cast project aims to encourage greater standardisation and process automation in bank-to-corporate and corporate-to-corporate communications across the financial supply chain, looking specifically at business models, best practices and standardisation of remittance information and e-reconciliation, digital identity and e-invoicing. Cast also addresses the specific issue of interoperability between EBPP operators and certification authorities in Europe.
Pierre Poncet, chairman of the Eacts, says: "Cast's objective is not to develop new standards directly but to work with corporates, banks, ERP providers and other market participants to evaluate proposed standards and define clear business requirements for new standards allowing E2E STP of the financial value chain."
In particular Swift will help Eact and the corporate community in developing structured remittance information to be used in the ISO 20022 payments messages.
Johan Kestens, member of the executive committee, head of marketing, Swift, says: "The agreement will avoid overlapping and duplication of effort and accelerate the development of new standards in those areas which are vitally important for banks and corporates alike."
The alliance with Twist is focussed on meeting corporate requirements for engagement in the forthcoming Single Europe Payments Area. Say Tom Buschman, chairman of Twist: "This collaboration allows the two organisations to accelerate their aligned efforts in supporting a corporate-driven implementation of Sepa in the coming years.”