Microsoft Adopts Experian’s SEPA Payments Service
Microsoft has adopted Experian’s Bank Wizard Global payment validation solution to handle accurate and timely commission payments to the Microsoft international network of re-sellers and supply vendors.
Under new single euro payments area (SEPA) rules, the use of the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) to uniquely identify the bank and account of payment beneficiaries will soon become mandatory for all international and domestic euro payments. Major corporate treasuries, such as Microsoft, are proactively implementing solutions to ensure compliance in advance of the deadline.
Bank Wizard Global validates and converts bank account data for Microsoft across 228 territories to the appropriate format for use at the point of collection or payment initiation, helping Microsoft to ensure smooth, timely and successful delivery of payments using multiple payment mechanisms via various banking associates and payment service providers. It will also enable Microsoft to correctly configure bank account information to the standard IBAN format, ensuring that its euro payments are compliant ahead of the 1 February 2014 SEPA deadline for eurozone countries. Non-eurozone countries follow in February 2016.
“Supply chains for organisations with a global business are complex,” said Colin Kerr, industry solutions manager, worldwide financial services, Microsoft. “Payments need to be delivered in a timely and reliable manner to all participants regardless of their global location. The Experian solution helps cut through that complexity, improves service levels and enables supply associates to receive payments as quickly and painlessly as possible.”