At Sibos 2007, Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) subsidiary, today announced that it has entered into a new partnership with Swiss-based financial infrastructure solutions provider Perago AG, a SIA-SSB Group company, to enable banks to integrate and improve straight through processing (STP) to their central Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) systems. Simultaneously Sterling Commerce is extending its existing partnership with Perago AG’s South African-based subsidiary, Perago Africa. Perago Africa, already a Sterling Commerce distributor to the financial industry, will also now distribute Sterling Commerce solutions across all industry segments in Sub Saharan Africa.
Sterling Commerce and the Perago companies will work together in the development and distribution of a comprehensive packaged RTGS participant solution designed to enable banks to integrate seamlessly between the central RTGS system and their own back-end core banking applications. The new solution will also provide message enrichment at the individual participant bank level to enable optimal utilization of the functionality offered by the Perago:RTGS solution. The solution brings together the Perago:RTGS application expertise provided by Perago AG, the practical hands-on integration experience of Perago Africa and the Sterling Commerce experience in enterprise integration, leveraging on the intimate SWIFT knowledge of the partners. Sterling Commerce will also provide the SWIFTReady Financial EAI Gold Label Awarded Sterling Multi-Enterprise Finance Gateway solution as the integration engine.
In systemically important payments systems such as RTGS systems, instructions between banks are processed and settled individually as they occur in real time. In order to achieve effective STP, participating banks need to effectively integrate into the new RTGS central system and therefore require a robust integration gateway to handle the variety of back-end application formats, capabilities and SWIFT message flows.
The Sterling Multi-Enterprise Finance Gateway offers comprehensive connectivity, translation, routing and integration options for banks and corporates, and will be used as the integration platform for the Perago:RTGS application to provide for the integration of the range of back office systems used by individual participants with the central RTGS system.
“The opportunity to work with the highly regarded Sterling Commerce to enable automation and end-to-end STP in the commercial banks using our RTGS system is very exciting. We believe that the new offering will enable commercial banks all over the world to fully utilize the capabilities of our application will see us offer new services to their customers and reduce their processing costs” said Philip Tromp, chief executive officer of Perago AG.
“This development is a natural consequence of our excellent relationship and working experience with our partners. This new solution will capitalise on the experience we obtained in supporting our clients in Africa and will make the approach and technology available to other countries using the Perago applications” said Hugo Smit, chief executive officer of Perago Africa. “Sterling Commerce’s leadership in integration solutions and Perago’s industry and regional expertise will see us offer the most comprehensive solution on the market for the financial services industry in Africa and beyond.”
“The extension of our strategic partnership with Perago demonstrates that the vibrant African market represents incubation and innovation opportunities” said Michele Carvalho, Director of Business Partners and Alliances, for Sterling Commerce. “This is a perfect fit with our continued strategy to expand our global reach and develop innovative solutions for the financial services industry. By developing the RTGS participant system on our Sterling Multi-Enterprise Finance Gateway platform, we are able to leverage its scalability and extend its capabilities further to help banks worldwide deliver added value solutions and services to their business communities” said Chris Johnson, vice president. Product Management for Sterling Commerce.
The Sterling Multi-Enterprise Finance Gateway has been certified SWIFTReady Financial EAI Gold Label for fully supporting all SWIFT standards, message types, mappings and STP standards. In addition, Sterling Commerce announced at Sibos enhanced capabilities for Sterling Multi-Enterprise Finance Gateway 4.3, to support several new financial industry standards that promote automated, real-time interoperability. [See related release ‘Sterling Commerce Extends its Leadership in Addressing Industry Standards for Financial Collaboration.]
Sterling Commerce will showcase its financial solutions including a service bureau offering and the Sterling Multi-Enterprise Finance Gateway at Sibos, taking place from Oct., 1-5 in Boston. For more information, please visit the Sterling Commerce Stand, G33, or visit us online at www.sterlingcommerce.com.
Perago is also exhibiting at Sibos again this year and can provide further information on their applications at SIA-SSB Group Stand D12.
Perago AG
Perago is a SIA-SSB Group company specialising in financial infrastructures solutions on a national, regional and institutional level. Perago covers the full spectrum of transformation services including strategic business consultancy, industry-leading business applications, high-quality implementation services, software maintenance, support and training.
Perago has a comprehensive application suite that includes real-time gross settlement (perago:rtgs), a government securities management system (perago:csd), a government payment solution (perago:pay) and a national anti-money laundering solution (perago:aml).
Perago has implemented its financial infrastructure solutions in five countries in Sub Saharan Africa, and perago:rtgs is currently being implemented in Sweden, Norway and Egypt.
Perago is a Swiss company with a South-African based software factory.
For more information please visit www.perago.com
Perago Africa
Perago Africa is a leading provider of financial system solutions in Africa. It has been instrumental in implementing several market infrastructure solutions in Africa. Perago Africa is the Business Partner for SWIFT and operates and accredited service bureau known as Trustlink. For more information on Perago Africa refer to www.perago.com or contact info@ perago.com
About Sterling Commerce
About Sterling Commerce
Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), helps customers thrive in a global economy by connecting their business communities, processes, people and technology. More than 30,000 customers worldwide – including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 – use Sterling Commerce solutions for business process integration, multi-channel selling, and supply chain execution to improve profitability inside and outside their company walls. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Sterling Commerce has offices in 19 countries and most major cities around the world. For more information, please go to www.sterlingcommerce.com.