Twelve major European institutions have moved to live use of the new SwiftNet FileAct solution for exchanging bulk payments bilaterally.
The early adopters - Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, Banco Central Hispano Americano, Banco Comercial Portugues, Banco Espanol De Credito, Banco Popular Espanol, BRED Banque Populaire, Caixa Geral De Depositos, Commission Europeenne, EFG Eurobank Ergasias, ING Group, JPMorgan Chase and SG Group - are re-using their SwiftNet connectivity investment to move bulk payments from proprietary to standardised processing. The Swift solution covers all potential counterparties in the transaction chain, including ACHs, correspondents and corporates, and recognises all existing file formats.
Marcie Haitema, SVP, ACH business executive, JP Morgan Treasury Services, says: "Moving to a SwiftNet environment reduces the need to rely on or interface with proprietary systems for each country or partner. Moreover, we believe it will improve our clients straight-through processing."
Other early adopters cite the benefits of implementing a single gateway interface for bilateral file exchanges and for connectivity to the Step2 platform of the European Banking Association.