BNY Mellon Successfully Completes Commercial-Scale Pilot Testing of SWIFT Solution for Electronic Bank Account Management (eBAM)

Dec 7, 2010

Representative series of eBAM scenarios carried out in collaboration with three global corporate SWIFT users

NEW YORK, December 7, 2010 — BNY Mellon, the global leader in asset management and securities servicing, today announced the successful completion of commercial-scale pilot testing of SWIFT's Electronic Bank Account Mandate (eBAM)-based solution for electronic bank account management.

Carried out by BNY Mellon Treasury Services and SWIFT in collaboration with three global corporate users — General Electric (GE), Swiss Re, and a major multinational manufacturer — the pilot demonstrated the ability of SWIFT's eBAM solution to provide corporate users with a broad range of automated bank account management services, including account opening, closing and maintenance.  Receiving files that originated from within the U.S. as well as from global locations, BNY Mellon delivered a production-ready pilot environment that allowed pilot participants to take full advantage of the SWIFT network.  A true end-to-end pilot that demonstrated BNY Mellon's commitment to innovation as a Treasury Services provider, the testing program enabled the three corporate participants to create, send, receive and update account management information just as they would in a live production environment.  Message origination and exchange was facilitated through the use of an interface provided by Wall Street Systems.

"Our clients and partners all played a key role in developing an account management solution that is now production ready, and we're grateful for their participation," said Al Briand, managing director and head of global product management and strategic development for BNY Mellon Treasury Services. "The stature of our pilot program's participants indicates how important account management automation has become to SWIFT's corporate users.  The pilot's success validates our confidence in a solution that reflects SWIFT's strong traditions of standardization and consultancy."

"The eBAM project illustrated how the transformation of bank accounts will be managed through the use of standards, secure connectivity and end to end integration to the bank and client systems. We appreciate the partnership with BNY Mellon, the corporate clients and Wall Street Systems to support the use of the eBAM standards in the industry," said Eileen Dignen, Managing Director, Banking Accounts and Initiatives, SWIFT.

Dennis Sweeney, Deputy Treasurer, GE Treasury, provided a corporate SWIFT user's perspective on the pilot, saying, "The automation and straight through processing of eBAM messages through SWIFT will have significant value for GE Treasury's bank administration process including productivity gains with faster turnaround times from the banks and increased data security with the reduction of paper documents being passed between our organizations."

Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a member-owned cooperative that enables more than 9,500 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries to exchange millions of standardised financial messages.   As a global messaging platform, SWIFT facilitates the secure exchange of proprietary messages between two financial institutions while ensuring its confidentiality and integrity.  Solely a carrier of messages, SWIFT enables users to automate and standardize financial transactions, and thereby lower their costs, reduce their operational risk and eliminate inefficiencies from their operations.  SWIFT does not hold funds nor does it manage accounts on behalf of customers, nor does it store financial information on an on-going basis.

With locations in 34 countries on six continents and a network of more than 2,000 correspondent financial institutions, BNY Mellon Treasury Services delivers high-quality performance in global payments, trade services, cash management, capital markets, foreign exchange and derivatives. It helps clients optimize cash flow, manage liquidity and make payments more efficiently around the world in more than 100 currencies. Processing more than $1.6 trillion in global payments on a daily basis, the company is a top-five participant in both the CHIPS and overall funds transfer markets, and is a recognized leader in the delivery of white-label treasury services solutions for banks and other large institutional clients.

BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 36 countries and serving more than 100 markets.  BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team.  It has $24.4 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $1.14 trillion in assets under management, services $12.0 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day.  BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK).  Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.