Misys Wholesale Banking Systems (Misys) says that Absa, one of South Africa’s largest banks, has bought Misys Message Manager to automate internal SWIFT message processing .The new system was licensed by the bank in February 2004 and, after a 2 month implementation project, went live in May 2004.
Misys says Message Manager provides Absa with a secure, managed and audited connection between their numerous back-office systems and their existing SWIFT Alliance system, allowing the bank to remove a significant number of manual processes. “In addition, the system enriches both incoming and outgoing messages to ensure higher levels of straight-through processing (STP) and allows the bank to change message workflows and STP rules quickly and efficiently, in line with changing market practices and regulations,” says a Misys spokesman.
“We are extremely pleased with both the Misys solution and the speed and professionalism of the implementation team,” says Patricia Sithebe, Head of Trade Settlements at Absa. “By allowing us to remove many of our manual processes, Misys Message Manager has delivered significant reductions in risks and costs to our business. In addition, the solution supports the new messaging infrastructures that we required to seamlessly take on new SWIFTNet services and XML standards. Absa are now in the enviable position of having a flexible financial messaging solution that gives us a real competitive advantage. For example, since going live on MT103 and MT205 processing in May, Absa have built new processing for MT202s. With Misys Message Manager, it took us just 2 weeks to implement this new MT202 processing, including setting up the mapping and routing rules, the connectivity and testing the new STP environment.”
Over the coming year, Absa plan to extend the use of Message Manager across all message types in the bank, increasing the volumes processed by the system to 30,000 messages per day. Misys and Absa will also continue to work together to advance the functional coverage of the solution. Absa will become the first Misys Message Manager site to implement the latest release of the solution, supporting SWIFTNet FileACT and SWIFTNet InterACT.
“We have built Misys Message Manager as a solution to address the growing requirements of all financial institutions in the SWIFTNet age,” says Mick Fennell, Business Development Manager for financial messaging at Misys. “It supports multiple message standards including SWIFT FIN, ISOXML, and FIX, and multiple messaging services including SWIFTNet FIN, SWIFTNet InterAct, and SWIFTNet FileAct. We are delighted that the solution has proved to be such a success in its implementation at Absa, and look forward to working with them to advance the solution for the future.”