At Sibos 2012 in Japan, SAP announced an expanded program team for SAP Financial Services Network.
In addition to the existing partners Citi and RBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Deutsche Bank, Nordea and Standard Chartered have also joined the SAP Financial Services Network as co-innovators for a cloud-based services platform that aims to simplify transactions between corporations and their financial institutions.
The SAP Financial Services Network, which is hosted by SAP as an on-demand offering, aims to facilitate multi-bank routing, multi-format payments, on-boarding and corporate services application development and deployment.
The network is also intended to facilitate core transaction management among banks, corporations and treasury service providers. As part of the development of the network, banks and corporations are contributing their expertise and resources to create a real-world road map that helps deliver full financial integration, connectivity and service among all participants.
"Last-mile connectivity between banks and their corporate clients is painful," said Jeanne Capachin, research vice president, IDC Financial Insights. "Banks need to improve the user experience and standardize their approach. With a strong connectivity platform solution, banks can increase transparency, improve straight-through processing and focus on developing new solutions."
"The road map being put into place will bring about new applications that enhance how corporations and corporate treasurers communicate with their banks," said Don Trotta, global head, banking industry development, SAP. "Taken together, SAP Financial Service Network aims to help lower costs, improve response times, simplify compliance and reduce the risk in all corporate-to-bank transactions."