Australia's St George Bank is replacing its legacy central payment execution system with technology developed by European software vendor Clear2Pay.
The Belgium-based firm says its payments execution module will replace St George's bi-lateral exchange system for processing bulk payment file instructions between the bank's systems, clients and other financial institutions.
Clear2Pay says the new system, which is expected to be implemented in early 2009, is based on its Open Payment Framework (OPF), which is built entirely on a service orientated architecture (SOA).
Commenting on the development, Paul Newham, acting group executive, technology and operations, St George, says: "The time has come to rationalise our existing legacy systems and replace them with future proof technology that will offer greater efficiency and lower total cost of ownership."
Newham says Clear2Pay's SOA-based technology will provide the "scalability, re-use and flexibility we look for".
Warren Gardiner, GM Australasia, Clear2Pay, says in addition to all the benefits the replacement of legacy systems will bring, St George will "be able to significantly increase their service levels with the enhanced functionality".