The Standardized Corporate Environment (SCORE) allows corporates to use SWIFT’s messaging platform to access services provided by their financial institutions, for example, cash management services. SCORE is based on a Closed User Group that exclusively handles financial messaging between corporations and banks, and does not allow corporate-to-corporate or financial institution-to-financial institution messaging. SCORE, which is available in most countries throughout the world, is used by major corporations including Microsoft, General Electric, Caterpillar, T-Mobile, and Novartis to secure and streamline financial transactions with their banks.
A Relationship Management Application (RMA) is a security component used within SWIFT communications to allow granular control of messages sent to and received from any correspondent. RMA was first introduced for FIN messages replacing the former BKE mechanisms. With the advent of SWIFTNet 7 RMA also became available for the FileAct services offered by SWIFT.
A corporate is eligible for SCORE if
The corporate is listed on a regulated stock exchange of a country that is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) or
The corporate is a majority-owned subsidiary of a listed company as defined above and fulfills additional criteria or
The corporate is recommended by a financial institution that is located in a FATF member country and participates in SCORE.
Until May 2011 corporates who are recommended by a Bank (non-listed) to join SCORE could only use RMA-enabled services, and were therefore restricted to using FIN. With release 7.0 of SWIFTNet the use of RMA for FileAct became available on an optional basis on June 1st 2011 with the result that recommended corporates are allowed to join the SCORE FileAct (real-time and store-and-forward) services as of that date.
With SWIFTNet 7 it is now possible to create an RMA bootstrap authorization for each corporate. If the corporate has no authorization in the RMA data base of the bank, its file will be rejected on receipt. However, the exchange of RMA authorizations within SCORE will only be available with the SWIFT standard release 2012. At that time RMA will also become mandatory for InterAct and FileAct and non-authorized messages will become blocked at the sending side, transparent to the receiver.
During the migration period, the following scenarios are possible:
Bank 7.0 / Corporate 7.0
Exchange of RMA messages will only be possible when RMA becomes mandatory. In the meantime, if both the bank and the corporate are on release 7.0 they can use bootstrap authorizations to ensure filtering of the traffic. The result will be the same as if RMA was fully implemented.
Bank 7.0 / Corporate 6.x
The bank creates a bootstrap authorization for each corporate it wants to do business with. If the corporate has no authorization in the RMA data base of the bank, its file will be rejected on receipt (when RMA is fully implemented, the file will already have been stopped on the sending side).
Bank 6.x / Corporate 6.x or 7.0
Files sent and received by the financial institution are not filtered. If the bank has a whitelist/blacklist functionality on their FileAct interface, it can use it to block files.
With BOX for SWIFTNet financial institutions and corporates are well prepared for any of these scenarios as well as the mandatory use of RMA in autumn 2012. The Interact and FileAct messaging services of BOX for SWIFTNet are already fully qualified for SWIFTNet 7 together with the RMA interface including SCORE in 2011.
After reviewing the results of the customer site implementation SWIFT has fully certified the RMA interface of BOX for SWIFTNet for SWIFTNet 7.
Beside all mandatory elements also most optional functions have been certified as you can read in the conformance statement on the SWIFT Website.
The BOX for SWIFTNet FileAct interface and the InterAct Store-and-forward and realtime interfaces had already previously been fully certified for SWIFTNet 7.0.
You can find all conformance statements on our download page.
SWIFT has (interim) certified the BOX for SWIFTNet RMA interface for SWIFTNet 7.0. The customer site implementation is scheduled for end of October 2011.
Beside all mandatory elements also most optional functions have been certified like you can read in the conformance statement on the SWIFT Website.
The BOX for SWIFTNet FileAct interface and the InterAct Store-and-forward and realtime interfaces had already previously been fully certified for SWIFTNet 7.0.
SWIFT standards 2011
The SWIFT 2011 standards are now available for BOX for SWIFTNet V3R10 and the new release V3R14, including support for the new FIN message types MT 670 and 671 (Distribution of Standard Settlement Instructions).
FIN CBT, InterAct and FileAct messaging interfaces
BOX for SWIFTNet V3R14 is the first official release containing the new SWIFT FIN CBT, InterAct, and FileAct messaging interface.
New functions in BOX for SWIFTNet V3R14
Additional new functions available with BOX V3R14 include:
Faster processing of large message volumes
The BOX server programs are now available for 64-bit architecture which provides an increased amount of memory to the BOX application. More messages can be kept in memory (increased MPS cache) which speeds up processing when large volumes of messages are processed.
Note: A 64 bit implementation is not yet available for z/OS USS because of the missing availability of 64-bit MQ and RSS APIs which would require special handling.
Optimized throughput for applications
It is now possible to allocate memory for messages (MPS cache) separately for different application interfaces. This means that in a high load situation caused, e.g. by one batch application, the processing of messages received from other applications would not be affected.
Simplified system control
Important system messages are now written to files in an easily readable format and can be forwarded to the Unix system log or other system monitoring applications.
Enhanced user productivity
Shortcut keys have been introduced for journals and application queues to provide an easier and usually quicker navigation method.
Message view for expert users
A message preview in wire format is now available for all message entry and modification tasks.
Batch retransmit function
A batch retransmit function has been implemented in the client which can significantly simplify the manual routing of messages to backend applications. When e.g. routing of messages to a backend application failed due to a configuration error or other reasons all these messages can be resent with one click when the underlying problem has been resolved.
The 13th floor
Remains the question: what happened to BOX for SWIFTNet V3R11, V3R12, and V3R13? V3R11 and V3R12 were intermediate releases created to enable the pilot customer Bank Austria to use the FIN CBT and the Interact and FileAct messaging interfaces immediately after completion of the customer tests. V3R13 has been skipped just like the 13th floor in many large buildings and hotels!
From September 19 to September 23 the most important annual event in the banking and finance industry calendar will take place in Toronto, Canada. Intercope has been participating at Sibos since 1985 without a break and this year you find us on stand F119. Meet our experts here, learn about the latest developments of BOX for SWIFTNet – the complete SWIFT message processing solution from Intercope – and see how we can meet your SWIFT requirements.
Intercope recently opened a YouTube channel called IntercopeIT and uploaded two videos about BOX for SWIFTNet. You can watch them on our YouTube channel, from a new page of our Website or directly within this post.
The first video presents a 3 minute high level overview of some of the major highlights of BOX for SWIFTNet:
The second video introduces the message concept on which BOX for SWIFTNet is built:
The new BOX logo which you see on the title slides of these videos and the Intercope logo are now also available for you on the download area.
Last but not least you may have already noticed that you now can access the complete blog with one click and scroll easily through it by clicking Weblog-All Posts on the right sidebar of all pages.
We hope you enjoy these new features of our Website.
New BOX interface for SWIFT RMA related SWIFT InterAct messages
Intercope’s SWIFT solution BOX for SWIFTNet will support the Messaging Services for SWIFTNet InterAct and FileAct (MSIF) of IBM WebSphere Business Integration for Financial Networks (WBI-FN) for SWIFT RMA. Availability of this function is planned for October 2011.
The SWIFT RMA service of BOX
A Relationship Management Application (SWIFT RMA) is a mandatory security component of any complete SWIFT solution. BOX for SWIFTNet can provide the SWIFT RMA service for various applications through a standard interface defined by SWIFT. During the processing of SWIFT RMA requests the SWIFT InterAct service is used to exchange messages between financial institutions. Box for SWIFTNet currently uses its own SWIFT InterAct interface to send and receive those messages.
A single window interface for SWIFT InterAct for WBI-FN users
Box for SWIFTNet users, who are deploying WBI-FN Messaging Services for SWIFTNet InterAct and FileAct to send and receive InterAct messages asked Intercope to use this interface also for SWIFT InterAct messages related to SWIFT RMA to enable them to see all SWIFT InterAct messages processed in a single Window.
Flexible deployment options of the SWIFT InterAct service in BOX
This new feature of BOX for SWIFTNet provides even more flexibility in the deployment options for BOX for SWIFTNet. Corresponding to the specific environments and requirement of customers SWIFT InterAct messages related to SWIFT RMA may either be directly transfered from Box for SWIFTNet through SWIFT Alliance Gateway (SAG) or through WebSphere Business Integration for Financial Networks.
After reviewing the results of the customer reference tests with Bank Austria SWIFT has fully certified BOX for SWIFTNet for FileAct Store-and-forward and FileAct Real-time for SWIFTNet 7.0. Intercope is the first vendor who achieved this qualification. See SWIFTNet 7.0 Qualification Register.
SWIFT has (interim) certified BOX for SWIFTNet for FileAct Store-and-forward and FileAct Real-time for SWIFTNet 7.0. The customer site implementation has been successfully completed by Bank Austria and the results of these tests are currently being reviewed by SWIFT.
Click on this link to find the conformance statement on the SWIFT Website. Further enhancements and additional functionality will be implemented in upcoming releases in accordance with customer requirements.
The certification tests for BOX for SWIFTNet InterAct Store-and-forward functions have also been completed and the results are being reviewed by SWIFT. Once this review is complete the customer site implementation will follow.
The certification of RMA for SWIFTNet 7 is scheduled for September 2011.
When system architects and administrators think about a replacement solution for MERVA the operating environment for the future solution may cause them a major headache. These guys are typically senior professionals who have relied for many years on the reliability, stability and scalability of IBM mainframes for their central SWIFT solution and are not at all amused about the idea of moving this to decentralised UNIX or Windows servers.
So they will discuss the option for running a new solution under zOS Unix System Services. However, the results of performance tests will cause another serious headache at least for the IT manager who is under daily pressure to cut costs.
MERVA is a native MVS application written largely in assembler and so makes most efficient use of System z resources. In contrast any application with comparable functionality running under Unix System Services naturally consumes much more CPU resource as a large overhead is required for the UNIX emulation. And CPU under zOS basically means money, a lot of money, as IBM charges according to the MIPS (millions of instructions per second) consumption.
However, there is a way out of this dilemma called Linux for System z or z/Linux. z/Linux is nothing other then a Red Hat or SUSE Linux distribution running on the Series z hardware directly under z/VM. As IBM is competing here with other hardware suppliers supporting these environments they offer a completely different and much cheaper pricing model for hardware and software. They do not care anymore about the famous MIPs as long as you use dedicated processors exclusively for z/Linux but charge you a flat rate called IFL (Integrated Facility for Linux) per processor.
Under z/Linux you can carry on operating your SWIFT solution in the IBM mainframe environment and at the same time reduce costs by a factor 10 compared with its operation under Unix System Services. “We estimate that the migration of our SWIFT solution to z/Linux will save us up to 90 % of the MIPS cost” emphasises Mel Stricker, Vice President Global Treasury Systems, one of the major reasons for Citigroup to implement BOX for SWIFTNet under z/Linux.
The first BOX for SWIFTNet user group meeting took place in Vienna from April 7 to April 8 2011 hosted by Bank Austria. 30 participants from customers in 5 countries, IBM and Intercope shared their many experiences of different BOX implementations and deployment strategies.
Manfred Bibars explained in his presentation, that Bank Austria decided to start with the new CBT and FileAct messaging interfaces of BOX because this strategy would maximise cost savings in the short term and allow a migration of MERVA to follow in a later step.
Andreas Goerlich from s IT Solutions presented details of how various individual SWIFT systems from 24 banks in 9 countries were replaced by one BOX instance and how significant performance enhancements were requested and achieved during this complex project.
Mel Stricker outlined how the clear migration path from MERVA to BOX and the availability of the product under Linux on System z were major decision criteria for Citi and that this strategy would allow the reduction of MIP costs to 10% compared with the resource requirements of a solution under zOS Unix System Services.
Daniel Mietzschke showed how BOX could be customized to process proprietary messages with the example of Target2 related XML data specific to Deutsche Bundesbank.
In a lively discussion these implementations and further customer requirements were debated and later an evening event with summerlike temperatures in a beer garden in the Prater offered further opportunities to exchange experiences in a relaxed atmosphere with crispy “Stelzen” and excellent Czech beer.
During the second day Olaf Grossler from Intercope gave a demonstration of the BOX CBT functions and discussed customer change requests. Jens Huser from Intercope explained the current product status and further development plans and Holger Wegner outlined plans to improve customer case management through a new portal based solution.
Francesco Oliva from Unicredit was elected as chairperson of the user group and Daniel Mietzschke from Deutsche Bundesbank offered to create a Website for the user group, where you will find more information and pictures from the Vienna event in the very near future.
A new document is available for download explaining the major concepts of the Box for SWIFTNet InterAct and FileAct Messaging Interface. Read here the management summary:
SWIFT InterAct and FileAct become increasingly important
“In addition to the traditional FIN-service, InterAct and FileAct are becoming increasingly important for the exchange of financial messages between financial institutions via SWIFT. SEPA payments, Cash Management, and the handling of Exceptions and Investigations are just a few examples of the business areas where ISO20022 structured XML messages are processed by banks exploiting the InterAct and FileAct protocols.
All flavors of SWIFT InterAct and FileAct BOX for SWIFTNet includes a Messaging Interface for the SWIFT InterAct and FileAct protocols which extends the scope of functions mandated by SWIFT for these services in several areas. Firstly, all flavours of SWIFT InterAct and FileAct, such as store and forward or real-time transmission and push or pull mode, are supported and can be configured and used in a very flexible way. Secondly, the communication with business applications is not restricted to the most commonly used interfaces based on IBM WebSphere MQ, but for situations where these facilities are not available, or desired, alternative interfaces can be used where the information exchange is based on a relational database or simple files.
SWIFT InterAct and FileAct complexity shielded for applications
Because of BOX for SWIFTNet’s flexible conversion plugins all the many interfaces are capable of understanding virtually any type of message format and generating valid FileAct and Interact messages from these formats using different message mapping profiles. So the complexity of protocol related information in the InterAct and FileAct protocols is completely shielded for business applications.
SWIFTNet 6.3 and SWIFTNet 7.
The InterAct and FileAct Messaging Interface is provided for SWIFTNet 6.3 and for SWIFTNet 7.”
From April 7 to April 8, 2011 the first BOX for SWIFTNet User Group meeting will take place in Vienna at UniCredit Bank Austria AG. Highlights of the BOX User Group meeting include live BOX demos (incl. CBT functionality) and contributions from BOX customers.
If you are interested in participating please contact Ms. Niki Stark by email at boxugm2011@intercope.com.
Erste Group is one of the largest financial services providers in Central and Eastern Europe. More than 50,000 employees serve 17.4 million clients in 8 countries. Initially the banks in the group ran many independent systems for SWIFT message handling. Together with their IT solutions provider s IT Solutions Erste Group set up a project team with the ambitious goal to replace this heterogeneous landscape by one unified system, which would provide rich application functions, smoothly integrate with the financial applications of the banks and guarantee outstanding performance and maximum availability.
In early 2007 it was decided to implement the new solution based on INTERCOPE’s BOX for SWIFTNet (BOX) and today 24 banks in 9 countries are live with the new solution which handles some 50,000 SWIFT messages per day. “With the migration to one unique BOX for SWIFTNet instance we can provide an excellent and cost efficient service level for our customers and are well prepared for new requirements such as processing and conversion of MX-messages” states Andreas Görlich, Senior Operations Manager SWIFT with s IT Solutions. To read the whole story click here.
SWIFTNet Release 7.0 has been available since December 31 2010. SWIFTNet 7.0 is a major and mandatory release impacting both the messaging (SWIFTNet) and connectivity components including BOX for SWIFTNet. SWIFT mandates that all customers upgrade their SWIFTNet infrastructure before the end of March 2012. In order to participate in this new environment all connectivity products must be certified for SWIFTNet 7. Intercope has obtained the following dates for the SWIFT certification testing of BOX for SWIFTNet:
April 18 2011: FileAct
June 24 2011: Interact
September 26 2011: RMA
General availability of BOX for SWIFTNet V3R14 with the complete SWIFTNet 7 certified functionality is scheduled for October 15 2011. This will allow customers sufficient time to test this version before migrating it into production. If customers plan to perform preliminary testing of SWIFT components such as SAG/SNL 7 with SWIFTNet 6 functionality this can be done today with BOX for SWIFNet V3R9 and V3R10 (see also SWIFTNet 7.0 backward compatibility test results).
One major new feature of SWIFTNet 7 is the use of RMA security features for FileAct and InterAct. To update the RMA datastore BOX for SWIFTNet exchanges InterAct messages with SWIFT via SAG. Previously supported protocols such as DIAS and EIAS from IBM WBI-FN are no longer applicable as they are not supported by IBM with SWIFTNet 7.
We state on our Website that Intercope provides solutions for mission critical business communications, but what do we actually mean by „mission critical business communications“? Let’s look at a few examples. When a large bank cannot transfer international payments for some hours this may easily generate costs of several hundred thousand Euros. When a large supermarket chain cannot process orders due to a failure of their communication system customers may not get the products they are looking for in thousands of shops in several countries. Or imagine the cost for lawyers, the loss of customer satisfaction and confidence when the processing of claims is significantly delayed in an insurance company due to technical constraints. All these are examples of mission critical systems where a failure may cause considerable damage to the business.
But how can we state that mission critical communications in the examples above simply do not fail when deploying Box for SWIFTNet or MessagePlus/Open? However well software is designed and tested we still have to face the fact that anything can fail: application software, operating system components, hardware and communication channels. Well, what you have to do if you have to guarantee the highest availability levels of 99.9% and above is to avoid any single point of failure in a trusted environment which you completely control.
This is why our products support a wide range of operating systems and their standard cluster solutions such as the Parallel Sysplexarchitecture of z/OS, AIX High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing (HACMP), SUN Solaris Cluster or Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) / Failover Clustering, and the high availability solutions for virtualized environments. All of the above high-availability support is provided as a standard component of the Intercope solutions and not as an expensive optional add-on.
With these options MessagePlus/Open and Box for SWIFTNet are quite unique in the marketplace: when you have to implement high availability architecture you are not bound to specific environments such as the Windows operating system, but you can build it on the hardware and software platform which is your strategic infrastructure of choice.
Several large financial organizations throughout the world are currently modernizing their SWIFT infrastructure migrating from IBM’s MERVA (Message Entry and Routing with Interfaces to Various Applications) to Intercope’s BOX for SWIFTNet. One example for this strategy is Landesbank Berlin – a large commercial bank headquartered in the German capital – who successfully completed such a migration project together with their IT service provider Finanz Informatik.
“Since several years we have deployed BOX for SWIFTNet as user interface for non MERVA customers, but we have always seen the product also as our strategic MERVA replacement solution. Starting with Landesbank Berlin we are now implementing this strategy with all our MERVA users” summarizes Lutz Gläser, manager of the SWIFT Service Bureau of Finanz Informatik.
From October 25 to October 29 the most important annual event in the banking and finance industry calendar will take place in Amsterdam. Intercope has participated at Sibos since 1985 without a break and this year will focus particularly on the latest developments of BOX for SWIFTNet – the complete SWIFT message processing solution from Intercope. In addition we will be able to discuss practical experiences of successful MERVA replacement strategies.
Meet our experts on stand A431 and see how we can meet your SWIFT requirements.
Intercope’s BOX for SWIFTNet was designed to address all MERVA functionality, such as back office integration, a user interface, manual message processing functions, and routing and printing services while the SWIFTNet messaging interfaces were initially provided by third party products.
Working closely with customers Intercope made the decision to develop BOX for SWIFTNet further as a total replacement for existing SWIFT solutions including MERVA.
Today BOX for SWIFTNet includes both FIN CBT functions and InterAct and FileAct services, allowing direct connection to SWIFTNet via SAG without requiring an additional SWIFT connectivity solution. This actual release is generally available for customers as of today. Here you find the conformance statement for the BOX for SWITNet FIN interface on the SWIFT website.
The FIN CBT and the InterAct and FileAct services form a coherent part of the integrated BOX architecture and store their data in the unique BOX database. The actual status and various data of the SWIFT communication can be monitored real-time for each LT session with the „Session Layer Channel Monitor“. In addition the „LT Session History“ provides comprehensive information about all messages exchanged including FIN, GPA and InterAct messages searchable by various criteria.
With these enhancements BOX for SWIFTNet now provides a complete SWIFT solution. From the lower communication protocol stacks up to sophisticated application functionality and integration options all aspects of SWIFT message processing – which so far typically required a mix of several software components – are covered in one system which is offered at a highly attractive price. The benefits of this approach are obvious:
* Reduced complexity
* Less hardware and software cost
* Eased administration
* Streamlined operation
* Straight forward problem analysis
* Significant cost savings
For more information read the White Paper giving a comprehensive overview about all functions and aspects of the BOX for SWIFTNet solution.
Within the scope of Web development and Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) Web Services have become an increasingly popular means of application integration. Basically Web Services provide a standard facility for interoperating between different software applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. As a communication layer they use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to receive XML structured messages and to reply to these requests. Typically there is a machine-readable description of the operations offered by the service written in the Web Services Description Language (WSDL).
Intercope uses this technology to provide services to applications in both the generic business communication solution “MessagePlus/Open” and in the SWIFT Message Processing System “BOX for SWIFTNet”.
MessagePlus/Open provides a Web Service to create messages and to send them to various destinations. This “SubmitMessageRequest” contains one or more content items in different formats such as text or graphics and of course a recipient in form of a fax, email or SMS address.
The MessagePlus/Open Web Service replies with an “Order ID”. This Order ID can be used later by the client application to retrieve the actual status of the message. In response to this request the MessagePlus/Open Web Service replies with status information indicating if the message was sent successfully together with transmission time stamps and additional reference information.
The FIN MessageValidation Service allows an application to send a message to the service and to receive a reply indicating whether or not the message passed validation, or if not, which syntactical or semantic errors were detected.
The RMA Fast Permission Check verifies if an RMA authorization exists for a specific correspondent and specific message type and returns the result to the calling application.
With these Web Services BOX for SWIFTNet provides the same functions as the former MERVA BKE lookup and the MERVA validation API call, but through a modern, future-oriented interface fitting into the strategy of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). One of the environments in which these services have been deployed and tested is the IBM Enterprise Payment Platform (EPP) where INTERCOPE achieved the then highest status of SOA certified partners with IBM.
SWIFT printing – an obsolete technique?
When, as a system architect, you design a SWIFT solution you will think about many aspects of the solution like application integration, XML capabilities, routing facilities, performance and availability, but SWIFT printing functions will probably not even enter your mind. Financial messaging is a typical example of highly automated computer based handling of business information but it is also an area where human intervention is still required and specialized graphical user interfaces are provided as an integral component of these digital information systems. Given all of the above SWIFT printing might look like an obsolete technique from former ages without any relevance for state of the art processing of highly structured data.
Users see SWIFT printing different
Take care! Users of your system will often see things very differently. Obviously people tend to have a persistent affinity towards paper based information processing, and you may feel deeply disappointed if your highly sophisticated solution design is not accepted simply because you forgot to provide SWIFT printing functions. nicely formatted printouts of SWIFT messages with the header in the right place, neatly formatted columns and detailed explanations of fieldnames.
Routing criteria for SWIFT printing
Of course the users also want to be able to use such SWIFT printing functions whenever they think they are required. But that’s not all of it by far. You also should provide facilities for automatic SWIFT printing options depending on routing criteria and on devices in configurable locations. And don’t forget about the two departments sharing the same printer but hating to mix up their printouts. So if you don’t want to start an argument with them, provide options to start automatic SWIFT printing for department A at 10.00 am and for department B after their lunchtime.
Meeting all requirements for SWIFT printing
Intercope has outstanding long-term experience in understanding and implementing both technical and user requirements of SWIFT solutions starting with telex and testkey systems some 25 years ago, followed by MERVA deployment and consultancy over many years and more recently the development of the latest generation of SWIFTNet interfaces. For more details check out how your requirements for a SWIFT solution are met with Box for SWIFTNet including sophisticated SWIFT printing functions.
In recent years international financial message handling has been successfully automated to a high degree. The vast majority of the 3.8 billion FIN messages and the 7.5 billion files transferred via SWIFT in 2009 were handled by Straight Through Processing. Typically most back office applications generate messages in structured formats and transfer them via the SWIFT network to the receiving institution where they are handled in a similar way by automated software applications. SWIFT interface solutions such as BOX for SWIFTNet provide the required communication, security and routing functions in a transparent way without requiring any manual intervention.
In the light of this scenario you may wonder why Intercope invests so much effort in providing functionality and user interfaces for manual message entry, correction and authorization in addition to the automated processing capability. The reason is simple: Even if comparably low message volumes are created or corrected manually the corresponding functionality is an indispensable component of any complete SWIFT solution because:
Some messages – like, for example, exception handling and investigations – are difficult to handle automatically or this would involve disproportionate effort and cost
There are always exceptional circumstance requiring the manual creation of messages on the fly
Erroneous messages require manual intervention
Smaller institutions with low message volumes may only generate SWIFT messages manually
An emergency solution is required in cases of contingency for high value payments and other highly critical messages
Read more about Box for SWIFTNet functions for manual message entry and repair here.
SWIFT routing is one of the more complex issues in the handling of SWIFT FIN, InterAct and FileAct messages.
SWIFT routing criteria
Most likely administrators will have to route different SWIFT document types to different destinations such as payments and financial institutions transfers, treasury, securities or cash management to name just a few. For this type of SWIFT routing the BIC code and the logical terminal ID of the sender have to be considered as well as the destination address. SWIFT routing may depend on currency and amount and special algorithms may be required for ACKs and NAKS as well as for FIN message types 010, 011, 015 and 019.
SWIFT routing facilities included in BOX for SWIFTNet
Generally speaking, facilities are needed to analyze the content of all header and payload fields in MT messages, and the corresponding information in XML structured MX messages and then to implement complex algorithms to determine a SWIFT routing destination. Some providers of SWIFT interface solutions recommend the use of middleware products for this purpose like the IBM WebSphere Message Broker. Other solutions like Intercope’s Box for SWIFTNet include SWIFT routing facilities as part of the product. The first approach sounds more generic however the second does not require specialized knowledge of additional products and allows the SWIFT system administrator to directly implement SWIFT routing rules in his system.
SWIFT routing for 24 banks in one logical system
In BOX for SWIFTNet the graphical user interface used for system configuration includes a module allowing you to analyze all the elements of a message including substrings and supporting regular expressions in arbitrary logical operations to determine any number of SWIFT routing destinations for any message type or acknowledgement. This gives you a very high degree of flexibility to implement even the most complex routing algorithms and in practice Box for SWIFTNet administrators have successfully defined even the most strange sounding SWIFT routing requirements for a variety of 24 differently organized financial institutions in 9 countries in one Box for SWIFTNet instance.
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) was founded back in 1973 with the objective of developing a modern communications system as an alternative to telex which had been used for financial transactions up to this time. As of today this objective has been achieved to a high degree and in consequence SWIFT is removing telex, testkey and fax functionality in the latest version 7.0 of SWIFT Alliance Access and Entry (SAA) which will be available at the end of 2010.
However, not all financial institutions are in the position to completely abandon telex and fax communication, and testkey security for financial message transfer. In particular in Africa and some Asian countries trading partners not reachable by SWIFT still rely on telex communication and testkey is also used to secure messages sent in other formats such as faxes. So what is the best thing to do if you still need telex, fax or testkey, but your SWIFT Alliance solution no longer supports these features?
Intercope has been providing telex, fax and testkey solutions for the financial industry for more than 25 years, and also developed the shortly to be discontinued telex, fax and testkey functions of SWIFT Alliance. The current versions of INTERCOPE’s “TelexPlus/Open” and “TestPlus/Open” are modern solutions supporting all telex and testkey requirement for the financial industry and in addition „MessagePlus/Open“ also provides these features and comprehensive fax functionality. “INTERCOPE is fully committed to preserving the telex, fax and testkey investments of each SAA user and to providing the most cost effective way to ensure business continuity in those areas where traffic, whilst lighter in volume, retains a strategic importance” states Reinhart Laumer, President and CEO of INTERCOPE GmbH.
IBM’s MERVA (Message Entry and Routing with Interfaces to Various Applications), originally developed in the 1980s, evolved into a de facto standard for SWIFT FIN for large financial institutions. Now companies face the challenge of replacing their extensive MERVA system with a more up to date application exploiting today’s state of the art technology and architectures but at the same time retaining the rich application functionality provided by MERVA including:
Manual data entry, authorization and correction
Sophisticated printing services
Complex organizational structures modelled via MERVA queues
Elaborate analysis / routing mechanisms to determine the routing of messages
Customer specific special processing for transactions interacting in a multitude of ways with MERVA using batch processing, API calls, and options such as the event driven launching of external applications or message validation services
Intercope’s MERVA experts are currently successfully working on such projects with 5 large financial institutions in both Europe and the US. Together with the customers they have analysed the MERVA queue structure, routing rules, application interfaces and other functions used in production systems. In a second step these rules and functions are modelled using BOX for SWIFTNet entities. This has resulted, in all 5 projects, in significant optimization and streamlining of daily processing. Finally, BOX for SWIFTNet is configured to meet the customer’s specific requirements on a development system and goes through the staging process of IT testing and user acceptance testing to the production system. With service providers and multi bank institutions this exercise is repeated many times as they operate BOX for SWIFTNet for many customers who all use MERVA in different flavours and configurations. This way one customer after another can be migrated in a flexible schedule avoiding any interference and big bang risk.
The configuration of multi-instance installations is eased by the combination of tools allowing the definition of generic parameters, workflows and routing rules for all entities but with specific settings for each organization and organizational unit. Also for the staging through development, acceptance and production systems easy to use tools are used whereby the configuration of one system can be exported, system specific parameters such as IP addresses are adopted by definitions in script files and the data is imported to the next system. Due to the flexibility of the software and the efficient cooperation of Intercope and customer experts this process has already been managed successfully – with one of the customers migrating 17 banks located in 9 countries over the past two years.
Typically these BOX for SWIFTNet installations include all the application functionality previously provided by MERVA and are using the Relationship Management Application as part of the security layer. With the BOX CBT version available in 4Q 2010 the network layer is also provided as an integral part of the product allowing these and other MERVA users to address their total SWIFT business needs with a single unique application avoiding the risk and cost of deploying a fragmented set of technologies.
Box for Swiftnet has been designed from the outset to support all types of SWIFT messages, both FIN and XML. Intercope has implemented ISO 20022 messages so far for RMA, SEPA, Cash Management and Target 2. Thanks to the underlying XML-based technology of BOX for SWIFTNet Intercope is in the position to support further message groups (business areas) very easily and efficiently, and in a short time frame.In addition the flexible and configurable message processing engine of BOX for SWIFTNet provides an ideal platform to implement specific functionality for specific message groups extending the scope of purely message related functions.
To learn more about these functions download the following document: BOX-XML-messages.pdf.
The Relationship Management Application component of BOX for SWIFTNet (BOX RMA) has been certified by SWIFT for SWIFTNet 6.0 to 6.3. SWIFT have now successfully tested BOX RMA for compliance with SWIFTNet 7.0 (See: SWIFTNet 7.0 backward compatibility tests results).
With the advent of SWIFTNet Phase 2, Intercope incorporated the RMA component as part of the BOX product, and was the first vendor to receive SWIFT certification for this application. Since that time the application has been continuously enhanced and future versions will include RMA functionality for FileAct and InterAct for SWIFTNet 7.
Today BOX RMA is used by 23 customers in several countries including service provides who use the application on behalf of many financial institutions.
BOX RMA provides rich application functionality extending the scope of SWIFT mandatory features including functions such as an easy handling of multiple authorizations in one step, an RMA permission check by a SOA service and a MERVA interface and real-time updates for external CBT datastores. With the BOX CBT version available in Q4 2010, RMA handling is further streamlined as the CBT BOX component can directly access the BOX RMA datastore avoiding delays and the complexity of synchronization mechanisms.
Box for SWIFTNet (BOX) was been designed right from the very beginning as a high volume system. Throughout its life development have continuously enhanced BOX to enable it to handle higher and higher message volumes. As a result of these efforts latest benchmark tests in the Intercope lab showed a transaction rate of 58.5 transactions per second (or over 210,000 transactions per hour).
This latest performance measurement has been achieved using a QuadCore 32 bit Linux System. 10,000 messages were downloaded from the SWIFT TANK file and fed into the system via MQ. These messages were processed using the standard BOX FIN workflow and transmitted via FMT (Financial Message Transfer). The generated ACK/NAK confirmations where routed to a backend application via MQ, to a printer or a BOX queue for manual intervention as determined by the workflow.
In parallel, for each SWIFT input message, a SWIFT output message was generated, received and routed to a backend application via MQ. In 342 seconds 10.000 SWIFT input messages and ACK/NAK confirmations and 10.000 SWIFT output messages were processed which corresponds to a throughput of some 200,000 message per hour.
A large European Central Bank has selected Box for SWIFTNet as MERVA replacement solution. This decision has been made after an international tender according to the Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Key criteria for the selection of Intercope were:
• Flexibility in the message workflow
• User-friendly functions for manual message entry for FIN and MX messages
• Options to repair and authorize messages
• Configurable views and filters on the message database
• Flexible and configurable printing options
• Graphical User Interface for messages in an external data warehouse
• Price performance ratio
From May 3 to May 5 the annual meeting of the German speaking MERVA user group (DIDUG) took place in Bremen, Germany. Reinhart Laumer (CEO) and Olaf Grossler (Manager of Implementation & Support) presented Box for SWIFTNet to the participating MERVA users, IBMers and IBM business partners. A great deal of interest was shown by the attendees as Reinhart and Olaf discussed the functions and architecture of the solution, and showed how 4 large financial institutions in Germany and Austria are currently successfully migrating from MERVA to a new solution based on Box for SWIFTNet. They also gave the participants an insight to the current status and plans for the SWIFT certification and general availability of the FIN CBT functionality now under development.
Bank Austria has signed an agreement with Intercope enabling the bank to use the new CBT, InterAct, and FileAct functions of BOX for SWIFTNet currently under development by Intercope (see Announcement-01.pdf). As part of this agreement Bank Austria has commited to perform the customer testing required for the SWIFT certification of these new features of BOX for SWIFTNet.
Bank Austria is currently using BOX for SWIFTNet for the Relationship Management Application (RMA) and to handle messages relating to the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA). As the graphical user interface for Bank Austria’s SEPA Message Warehouse, BOX for SWIFTNet provides a journal of bulk files and individual SEPA transactions together with reconciliation options and facilities to manually repair erroneous SEPA messages.
Bank Austria plans to use additional standard functions provided by BOX for SWIFTNet to replace their legacy MERVA solution with a state of the art application supporting the latest SWIFT standards and protocols whilst also providing the rich application functionality of MERVA, but based on modern industry standard technologies. The new BOX CBT, InterAct, and FileAct functions will enable Bank Austria to handle all their SWIFT requirements with a single application which includes the lower protocol levels as well as sophisticated application functionality.
Manfred Bibars, SWIFT expert from Bank Austria, states: “We chose Intercope’s BOX for SWIFTNet because it meets our basic rule – a total solution from one source. Also key is our experience with Intercope’s flexible implementation regarding requests and timelines. Last but not least the solution meets our price-performance criteria.”
Bank Austria, a member of the UniCredit Group, is the largest bank in Austria with total assets of EURO 207.7 billion and a market share of 88% for large corporate enterprises. Within Austria, the bank provides a network comprising of some 300 offices with about 8,000 employees in addition to its international operations in some 20 countries in Eastern Europe.
