SWIFT Appoints Broadridge as Business Partner in Europe
US financial servicing company Broadridge Financial Solutions has been appointed by global banking co-operative SWIFT as a business partner for Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Liechtenstein.
Under the agreement, Broadridge will take responsibility for first-line support and related services in these countries across a range of SWIFT solutions including Alliance Lite2 and other value-added services. The agreement extends to more than 500 existing financial institution (FI) and corporate members.
SWIFT recently upgraded its partner framework to better address the priorities of its user community, and make it easier for firms to choose the most suitable applications, services and service providers for their businesses.
“The category of SWIFT business partner is reserved for providers that can best serve as a strategically aligned extension of SWIFT. Business partners are selected for their depth of local market expertise and relationships with the community,” said Alain Raes, chief executive officer (CEO) Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific, SWIFT.
Broadridge will augment its support of SWIFT’s solutions and services through the continued promotion and delivery of its own, globally established solutions for the SWIFT community. These include Broadridge’s Global SWIFT Service Bureau which, like SWIFT’s Alliance Lite2, provides access to SWIFT for financial services firms and corporate treasury groups worldwide.
Broadridge also offers its SWIFT Transaction Manager, a web-based workflow and management control function which enables users to monitor the full lifecycle of their messages and create, release and re-route messages in a controlled straight-through processing (STP) environment that minimises exposure to processing errors and delays.
Actuare Launches SWIFT Messaging Service
In a separate announcement Actuare, a vendor of international standards organisation (ISO) and Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol messaging solutions for financiers, said it has gone live on the SWIFT network, following its decision to join it late last year to improve its cross-border interconnectivity for customers.
The connectivity and workflow firm will act as a bridge between financial institutions (FIs) using SWIFT and other SWIFT-enabled service providers. It decision to join the platform was taken as a result of SWIFT being selected as the default method of connection for solution providers and direct participants in TISA Exchange Limited (TeX), which facilitates the electronic transfer of wrappers and assets between fund managers, platforms, wealth managers and any firms that holds assets on behalf of corporate investors.
The new service gives Actuare corporate and FI customers a one-stop solution for processing, integration and connectivity, says the vendor, and provides another choice when looking to connect to SWIFTNet. The service works seamlessly with in-built security and fault tolerance end-to-end, asserts the vendor, so users will not need to have a detailed knowledge of SWIFT and should experience consistent availability.
Charles Kilkenny, chief executive officer (CEO) of Actuare, said the new service, “allows us to play alongside the other SWIFT messaging providers, offering a low-cost fast track path to interoperability and migration to ISO 20022. We see this service as a hybrid offering rather than another hub and it will enable Actuare users to connect effortlessly with other market participants through SWIFT and SWIFT-enabled hubs.”