External Media

 

 

Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. Goes Live With FircoSoft Centralized Transaction Filtering Solution

New York - 29 November 2011

FircoSoft, the leading global provider of watch list filtering solutions announced today that Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. is live with its solution, Firco Continuity, delivering real time, centralized watch list filtering for funds transfer, trade finance and ACH transaction activity.

Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. provides financial and strategic solutions serving major corporations, financial institutions, and public sector entities. With offices in more than 28 countries, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. offers clients both localized service and the extensive reach of a global business network. Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Japan-based Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: MFG), one of the largest financial services companies in the world, with total assets of over $2.0 trillion.

Firco Continuity, FircoSoft's flagship watch list filtering solution, was recently implemented at the bank and now filters domestic and international wires in real time, supporting multiple transactions systems. Prior to the selection and deployment of FircoSoft, the bank utilized multiple siloed filtering solutions for different transaction systems as a result of the Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd merger in 2002.

"We are very pleased with the rapid implementation and results of the centralized filtering solution from FircoSoft. With Firco Continuity, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. now benefits from real-time filtering of multiple transactions systems such as our Money Transfer System, Trade Finance and ACH systems as well as the ability to provide our Business Users with a similar workflow throughout the multiple systems," said Frank Carellini of Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. "Providing filtering services and solutions since 1994, market leader FircoSoft was the right choice. The new centralized approach has significantly improved the effectiveness of our operations and will ensure ongoing protection against risk and compliance with the latest anti-terrorist financing regulations."

"We have seen new interest from financial institutions for an integrated real time filtering environment that combines processes, increases efficiencies and streamlines the decision workflow," said Laurent Corbel, Managing Director of FircoSoft. "By deploying a centralized solution via direct connectors for SWIFT Alliance Access, MTS, CS Eximbills and ACH, our professional services team was able to significantly speed deployment and create an agile environment that can more easily address evolving requirements whether due to regulatory change or business practices. We are very pleased with Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd.'s choice and subsequent deployment of our centralized filtering platform."

Firco Continuity provides real time watch list screening and blocking, and can be interfaced to any system, operate on all major platforms, for all sanctions lists, and provides direct connectivity to a large number of the industry's most popular messaging systems and banking applications. Firco Continuity helps financial institutions remain compliant with the latest antiterrorist financing regulations and eliminate the risk of processing an illegal transaction.

 

FircoSoft - bobsguide.com

 

 

GTR magazine Jan/Feb 2011. China Systems wins Leaders of Trade award for best trade finance software for the fifth year straight

China Systems beat off stiff competition to win the GTR award for best trade finance software provider, according to the voters in our readers' poll.

The software provider has established a strong market presence, with a loyal and growing international customer base of more than 150 customers worldwide. Its flagship product is Eximbills, a well-known toolkit for trade services within the banking industry. Over the past year it has successfully secured a number of new contracts, including one with Bank of China; another with Isbank in Turkey; a deal with Standard Bank for a payments product; a contract with a large commercial bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and one for a large bank in Romania.

Speaking to GTR, regional sales director Digby Bennett explains some of the most

"We increased our large customer base, with very large installations some in excess of 6,000 workstations. We have also moved our customer base to ISO 20022 business standards and J2EE and SOA technologies."

significant achievements of the past 12 months: "We increased our large customer base, with very large installations some in excess of 6,000 workstations. We have also moved our customer base to ISO 20022 business standards and J2EE and SOA technologies. We also have three large supply chain finance installations underway"

He adds: "Our system is flexible but it maintains its upgrade integrity. Customers get exactly what they want," But, of course, there will be challenges of the horizon for China Systems as it moves into 2011. "There will be increasing pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency. These drivers always exist, but the business climate is pushing everyone harder," Bennett explains.

"Standards like ISO 20022 are slowly being adopted. Major operational gains will be realised when we all play by the same rules. Technology integration is also moving towards service orientated architecture. Those on the other systems will be left behind."

 

 

Supply Chain Newsletter Q2 – 2010. China Systems' Joel Schrevens interviewed about the company's approach to the BPO

Integrating BPO into third party solutions

Supply Chain on SWIFT spoke to Joel Schrevens, solutions director, China Systems about his firms approach to the BPO.

Has there been any immediate impact on supply chain finance from the introduction of the BPO or are participants adopting a wait-and-see approach?

Sometimes a wait-and-see approach is not a choice, but a result of market conditions. The impact of a new proposal from the Basel committee on Trade Finance, classifying trade products as more risky, is a point of big concern. Everyone agrees that trade and access to affordable trade finance is vital to the economic recovery process and that trade products actually provide risk mitigation techniques.

More specifically for the introduction of the BPO, it was unfortunate that the ICC April meeting in Beijing was cancelled.

SWIFT and a number of banks were going to apply for ICC endorsement of the BPO as an accepted market practice. This would be a great step forward, since trade, being a collaborative and global business, can only be successful when the parties involved have agreed on a common set of guidelines and dispute resolution procedures like the UCP for Letters of Credit, which are published by the ICC.

ICC endorsement of the BPO would further confirm its potential as a legally binding, valid and enforceable risk mitigation and open-account financing instrument, without the need for individual bilateral agreements between buyer and supplier banks.

The potential of the BPO is very clear, but having a well-defined procedural, legal and risk management context is a prerequisite for the BPO to become a key instrument in bank-assisted open-account trade. On a domestic level, such issues can be much more easily controlled and it is not a coincidence that a BPO-based solution for domestic trade services was recently introduced in China (See page 5). With increased usage and ICC endorsement, we could see a domino effect in usage of the TSU and BPO in the course of 2011.

How are you positioning the BPO within your existing trade services offering?

We have implemented TSU messaging standards, which are ISO 20022-compliant, and the BPO instrument in exactly the same way as we have implemented SWIFT standards; that is, it is transparent to the business user. We support the TSU channel and the BPO in the same way as we support SWIFT FIN and EDI for Factoring messages. We build solutions that focus on the trade business; not on the channels that are used to achieve the business.

We position the BPO as an additional trade instrument that can be used as a vehicle for pre- and post-shipment finance by buyer and supplier bank. The concept of the Obligor Bank opens the door for other banks to participate in the BPO risk.

Although banks are mostly not involved in open account trade exchanges today, apart from the settlement side, it is clear that the TSU with BPO provides a valid alternative to process open account transactions in a more secure way: it formalises the establishment of buyer credit and reduces the risk of supplier fraud, because a supplier bank is involved and will perform the necessary checks on their side.

If the bank buys our Eximbills Enterprise solution today, even if they do not have an immediate business case for TSU with BPO, they can start using the BPO capability of TSU if that situation changes. We would not have to sell them a new application.

We see the long-term potential of TSU and BPO as well-founded for the following reasons:

Like the traditional trade MT4xx and MT7xx messages, TSU and BPO use SWIFTNet infrastructure.

We expect TSU BPO to be endorsed by the ICC, so that it becomes a common market practice similar to the UCP for Letters of Credit.

Message standards for TSU are XML-based and ISO 20022-compliant. Current message standards for traditional documentary trade are MT4xxand MT7xx-based. It is likely that, over time, these parallel tracks will converge. Future documentary trade standards are likely to be XML-based, sharing the SWIFTStandards Financial Dictionary with TSU. This implies that through our current compliance with TSU standards, we are paving the path for our future compliance with the XML versions of traditional trade standards. Processing trade 'source' and 'settlement' data via the same infrastructure and using the same message formats will also facilitate reconciliation of payments and speed up reversal of related liabilities, in the event that the open account trade transaction has been financed.

 

 

eBSI Tradebrief Issue 6, Jan 2011. eBSI Tradebrief announces winner of China Systems scholarship

 

Competition!

Win the 'China Systems Scholarship' compliments of China Systems Corporation. In order to have a chance to win simply subscribe to eBSI Tradebrief or stay with us if you already are a subscriber. To subscribe to this quarterly ezine simply email TradeBrief@ebsi.ie and we will add you to our subscriber list and add an entry to the draw for a free scholarship for our International Trade Specialist Accreditation worth EUR 2000! We congratulate Mr. Ayemibo Bamidele who graduated from the China Systems Corporation Scholarship and works in the Trade Finance Department of Diamond Bank, Nigeria.