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Background
As part of SWIFTNet Phase 2, SWIFT has introduced
the concept of a Relationship Management Application
(RMA) to manage bilateral relations in place of
the BKE model.
SWIFT has defined a set of minimum
functions, which each RMA application must implement,
and
has asked the SWIFT vendor community to develop
RMA solutions for the market with the option
of developing functionality beyond the minimum
requirements.
These RMA solutions have to function
independently of CBTs and are separately certified
by SWIFT.
The status of the certification process
is monitored and published by SWIFT on www.swift.com
under "SWIFTNet
Phase 2 / Vendor Status".
A certified RMA
solution must be installed in every bank worldwide
at the latest in 2008, and
the RMA solution is of vital importance for the
bank's SWIFT traffic.
The INTERCOPE RMA solution for WBI-FN (IC-RMA)
In September 2006 the INTERCOPE RMA successfully
completed the SWIFTNet Phase 2 pilot test with
IBM WBI-FN at Finanz-IT in Germany as the pilot
customer. INTERCOPE therefore became the first
RMA vendor, aside from SWIFT, to complete this
qualification process successfully.
As IBM WBI-FN
does not include RMA functionality, INTERCOPE
decided to focus on developing such
an application specifically designed for large
institutions and service providers.
IBM now sells
the INTERCOPE RMA solution (IC-RMA) to their
WBI-FN customers, and promotes IC-RMA as a solution
tightly integrated with WBI-FN.
To ensure this
tight integration the IBM and INTERCOPE labs
work closely together and review
planned enhancements for either component on
a regular basis. This process also enables INTERCOPE
to support new WBIFN releases at the time of
their general availability.
In addition to the
functions specified as mandatory or optional
by SWIFT, the IC-RMA solution offers
additional important functions which are critical
for most large institutions.
Reasons for using the INTERCOPE RMA solution
(IC-RMA) with
IBM WBI-FN
The solution is specifically designed for large
institutions and service providers and takes
into account the additional complexity likely
to be encountered by such institutions in this
application area.
It is tightly integrated with
IBM WBI-FN, supports multiple platforms and makes
use of standard
IBM middleware such as MQ Series, DB2 and Websphere
Message Broker.
1. Real time update of relationship data in
WBI-FN
The SWIFT specification states that update of
the data store in the CBT can be performed via
file transfer, once per day, per week or whenever
the banks choose. IC-RMA, instead, assures a
real time update of the data store, which allows
banks to stop unwanted SWIFT traffic immediately.
It also allows banks to establish a new relation
within seconds. Both of these functions are available
to banks today using Merva for managing relationships
via BKE. This real time update minimizes the
risk of communicating with unwanted correspondents
especially in time critical situations.
2. RMA permission check
External applications can check today whether
a BKE exists before executing the transaction
and bookings. After introducing the RMA granularity,
legacy applications must check at the message
type level. Included in the IC-RMA solution is
a service (implemented through SOA, via MQ or
ESB), where the bank's legacy applications can
access the actual data in the IC-RMA data store,
to ensure transaction consistency and correct
bookings.
3. Merva Enhancement
IC-RMA allows a bank to continue using Merva
after the replacement of BKE by RMA. It enables
Merva to perform RMA permission checks for
all the messages running through Merva, as
well as for messages manually created in Merva.
It also allows the manual viewing of all active
relations and the handling of RMA errors in
a Merva queue as today with BKE.
4. BIC4 creation of new relations
With traditional BKE banks could establish relationships
based on BIC4 codes with all locations of an
institution worldwide or based on BIC6 codes
with all locations of a bank in a specific
country. With RMA this is no longer possible,
authorizations have to be granted for each
BIC8 individually instead. However, IC-RMA
provides a comfortable option in the user interface
to generate authorizations for any number of
BIC8 correspondents in one step by simply selecting
them from a BIC directory list with help of
wild-card search functionality.
Why buy IC-RMA NOW ?
SWIFT has designated implementation windows for
all countries and customers for SWIFTNet Phase
2 during 2007 and 2008.
All banks
should implement PKI security by 3rd or 4th quarter
2007 together with RMA traffic
in a test environment.
In order to have enough
traffic to automatically update the RMA data
store in 2008 all banks should
start the traffic based recording of existing
relationships in 3rd or 4th quarter 2007. Subsequently
the RMA solution must be in production at the
latest by 2nd or 3rd quarter 2008.
In the "SWIFTNet Phase 2 Planning Guide" SWIFT
recommends that "you should have installed
the Relationship Management Application (RMA)
functionality in the infrastructure upgrade" and
at SIBOS 2006 in Sidney SWIFT again recommended
that banks should choose, acquire and install
an RMA solution in 2007. |
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