Press information
1st October 2007
LogicaCMG joins SWIFT SEPA testing programme to help industry prepare for SEPA
LogicaCMG, a major international force in IT and business services, announced today that it had joined forces with SWIFT to help the European financial services industry prepare for the implementation of the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) next year and beyond.
There are two major challenges for the industry in the run up for the introduction of SEPA. One is ensuring that each participant has tested its systems to be compliant with the European Payments Council (EPC) issued rulebooks and requirements. The other is to address the wider issue of testing the entire payment environment across multiple channels, payment instruments and multiple clearing & settlement infrastructures to accommodate SEPA and the numerous other changes in progress in European payments
SWIFT is addressing the first challenge through its SEPA Testing Programme by helping customers to reduce their testing effort by offering an integrated, consistent and single approach for the “core” SEPA standards compliance testing. In particular, SWIFT’s Simulation Testing and Qualification Service (STaQS) tests compliance with the “core” SEPA schemes with pre-defined sets of mandatory and optional test cases. The service allows participants to test at their own pace as it is a standalone service available 24/7.
LogicaCMG, already a market leader in the provision of testing services and payments, is addressing the second challenge through a payments version of its TestFrame™ methodology. This is based on LogicaCMG’s close involvement in the development of the SEPA programme and detailed understanding of the payments industry. These have has been combined with TestFrame™ to enable banks to achieve cost effective end-to-end testing and to mitigate risks during the implementation process.
Both organisations see these services as complementary and will work together for the industry to provide a complete payments testing service for SEPA and the broader payments world.
Lázaro Campos, Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT said, “The industry will be best served, in terms of cost and risk reduction, by a single SEPA reference testing platform for the basic interoperability testing. STaQS is uniquely positioned to provide this single SEPA reference testing platform for the industry and we welcome LogicaCMG’s decision to embed SWIFT's STaQS in their overall testing solution.”
“LogicaCMG’s testing methodology and services already contribute to many successful projects within the financial services community. Combining the basic SWIFT testing service with our deep understanding of the SEPA testing rulebook within our end to end testing offering, provides the banking community with the most effective and lowest risk approach to SEPA testing and readiness, ” added Lode Snykers, Managing Director of Global Financial Services at LogicaCMG.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About LogicaCMG
LogicaCMG is a major international force in IT and business services. It employs around 40,000 people across 41 countries. LogicaCMG’s focus is on enabling its customers to build and maintain leadership positions using LogicaCMG’s deep industry knowledge and its track record for successful delivery. The company provides business consulting, systems integration and IT and business process outsourcing across diverse markets including telecoms and media, financial services, energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public sector. Headquartered in Europe, LogicaCMG is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE:LOG; Euronext:LOG) and traded on the Xternal List of the Nordic Exchange in Stockholm. More information is available at www.logicacmg.com
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