Intercope

RMA for SWIFT when used by Corporates – timeline and migration scenarios

Horst — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:18:50 +0000

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.

(See : SWIFT: ” RMA for FileAct in SCORE“).

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.

(See: SWIFTNet 7.0 Qualification Register).

Automation of Credit Card Transactions with MessagePlus/Open

Horst — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:20:06 +0000

In times where much talk is of secure online transactions, the next generation Internet applications and Webservices it is amazing to see how frequently fax continues to be used for business communications. One example of this phenomenon is in the processing of credit card transactions – in particular where many branches of banks communicate with a service provider. For card applications, cancellations, blocking of cards and many other transactions it is not at all unusual to see the issuing bank fill out a paper form and send it via facsimile to the service provider.

Then in many cases the received fax pages are printed, manually sorted according to transaction type, issuing bank, region and other criteria and distributed, again manually, to operators who finally type all relevant data into back office systems.

CardProcess GmbH, a company handling 3 million credit cards for the Cooperative Banking Group in Germany, recently undertook a major project to accelerate this laborious process and to make it much more secure and cost efficient. Facsimiles are now received and stored electronically; all relevant data is extracted from the images automatically by optical character recognition (OCR), forwarded to a workflow management system and finally safely stored on non erasable media meeting all compliance regulations.

“With MessagePlus/Open we have a powerful tool which really streamlined, automated and secured the former manual work processes to a very high degree. Currently we process some 36,000 transactions per month without problems and the solution is perfectly adopted to our specific business needs” states Patrick Lenz, the responsible project manager with CardProcess.

Click here to read the whole story.

Intercope SWIFTNet 7 qualification completed

Horst — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:44:04 +0000

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.

SWIFTNet 7 Qualification for BOX for SWIFTNet RMA Interface

Horst — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:59:25 +0000

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, FIN CBT, InterAct and FileAct messaging interfaces in BOX for SWIFTNet

Horst — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:22:50 +0000

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!

Meeting Intercope at Sibos 2011

Horst — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:09:58 +0000

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.

BOX for SWIFTNet on YouTube

Horst — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:28:14 +0000

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.

Support of IBM WBI-FN Messaging Services for SWIFTNet InterAct and FileAct

Horst — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:54:54 +0000

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.

BOX for SWIFTNet fully certified for FileAct

Horst — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:35:50 +0000

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.

Status of BOX for SWIFTNet certifications for SWIFTNet 7

Horst — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:56:20 +0000

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.