KAS Bank NV, a Netherlands-based investment management, custody, clearing and settlement services firm, and one of the top 100 users of SWIFT, chose Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 and Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT as part of a mainframe migration onto the Microsoft Windows platform.
More than 95 percent of the bank’s transaction messaging occurs over the SWIFT network, and the transition to BizTalk and BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT was made to speed the connections and reduce the costs of payments processing and to provide institutional investors with secure and reliable SWIFT connectivity.
BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT is a set of software components that enables the sending and receiving of messages over the SWIFT network with the support of BizTalk Server, Microsoft's business process management server. KAS Bank is using it to help customers quickly and efficiently obtain securities settlements, and transmit and receive payment instructions.
"SWIFT connectivity forms such a large part of our own and our customers' business processes that it was vital for KAS Bank to have technology that could facilitate the scalability and flexibility required to rapidly respond to client demands in this area," said Pim van der Horst, chief information officer of KAS Bank. "After conducting strenuous benchmark testing, SWIFTAlliance Access and SWIFTAlliance Gateway in combination with BizTalk Server and BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT were clearly the most robust choices."
The move was made as KAS Bank transitions its entire operations platform off the mainframe and onto a Microsoft Windows platform to eliminate the need for multiple connectivity applications. The overall Windows migration, planned for completion in 2010, is expected to help the firm reduce cost, improve service and speed straight-through processing levels.
Microsoft’s worldwide payments industry manager Sheida Hadji-Ashrafi says the functionality and features of the BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT solution will allow KAS Bank to divert resources that had been spent on managing payments messaging back toward servicing customers.
“This implementation of our BizTalk Server and the accompanying accelerator will allow them to leverage the economies of scale that Microsoft technologies can provide, and redirect resources back into their business to improve the customer experience," Hadji-Ashrafi says.