IBM says that banks are grappling with the task of renovating older payments systems in response to competitive, regulatory and cost pressures. Many payments systems are siloed, running on multiple platforms from different vendors, each with unique data types, interfaces and message routing capabilities.
In addition, many payments functions are deployed redundantly across multiple systems, creating unnecessary costs for banks as they maintain duplicate capabilities. As a result, application development and data integration is more complex, time-consuming and expensive than ever before.
IBM’s enterprise payments platform, based on WebSphere and DB2 software and services, is designed to address these problems and simplify payment systems by providing a single platform to integrate new and existing ones regardless of where they reside.
The SOA-based platform allows other banking applications to leverage componentized payment services in support of multiple lines of business. For example, banks can now purchase or develop one service to handle identity verification requirements and reuse it elsewhere to respond faster to changing regulatory requirements.
The new platform supports payment industry standards, including SWIFT messaging protocols, to streamline application integration and speed up time to market for new payments products. The platform also helps banks address post-merger integration challenges by providing a single, reusable payment infrastructure across multiple areas such as wire and automated clearing house (ACH) functions.
IBM says that, for IT managers, in-house testing shows the new platform can accelerate application development time, reduce test time and spur rapid integration of existing payment systems.
The financial industry is keen to invest in technology based on industry standards and we welcome the launch of an ISO 20022 based platform that is open to support all interfaces and gateways to SWIFT, said Johan Kestens, head of marketing for SWIFT.
