IBC / TWIST BSB March 2009 Newsletter

03.30.2009 // Newsletter // editor

A number of months have passed since the last IBC (International Bank Compensation) / TWIST newsletter. During this time, banks and bank software vendors have made much progress in implementing the TWIST BSB.

• Since the August 08 newsletter, two banks, Danske Bank and Barclays, were live. Since then three additional banks have gone live, Societe Generale, Citi and JPMorgan. And during the first half of 2009 at least one additional bank will be live in full production, with possibly two more in limited customer production. In addition, two banks are now providing the BSB on a one-off basis to a single customer. Lastly Bank of New York Mellon has announced that they support the TWIST BSB. See News from the Banks.
• Two major bank software vendors, TriSyn and SunTec, now have BSB capability in their billing module (See press release from SunTech). WFG’s BRMEdge enables corporates to process the TWIST BSB. See News from the Software Vendors for more information.
• The BSB is now expanding to FIs, with a few broker / dealers and banks working with their banking partners and correspondents in implementing the BSB.
• A few corporates have implemented / upgraded their “account analysis” software to process and analyze the BSB. See News from the Corporates for more information on what GE is doing.
• Lastly there are two projects to expand the BSB capability. One is to expand the Service Codes used in most BSB files to include “Global” services, Global Service Codes Project. The second is to register the BSB under ISO20022, ISO 20022 Registration.

For more information read below.

In this Issue

• Global Service Codes Project
• ISO 20022 Registration
• News from the Banks
• News from the Corporates
• News from the Software Vendors
• Lastly you can help

Contacting TWIST

TWIST Process Innovations Ltd
Cheyne House, Crown Court
62-63 Cheapside, 4th Floor
London, EC2V 6JP
United Kingdom

Email: info@twiststandards.org

Web: To find out more about TWIST activities, please register at www.twiststandards.org

Global Service Codes Project

Steve Weiland reports:

The project structure and organization have been completed with the cooperation, assistance and direction of the AFP. Global banks have been identified and accepted as participants in this effort to expand the 2008 AFP Service Codes into an internationally compliant set of common codes. The twenty-four AFP Product Families, comprising 2,108 detail services, have been broken into five “working groups” to facilitate a sequential and directed effort.

Work Groups

Each work group will be distributed to the participants along with a spreadsheet template designed to ease examination, update and collation of the results.

The participants will examine the existing AFP service codes in order to:

• Identify existing codes that are useable with no changes.
• Identify existing codes that need descriptive and definitional modification to make them internationally acceptable.
• Identify new codes and product families that must be added to the set.

The first work group, Disbursements, will be distributed to the participants on March 16, 2009. Upon completion of all five work groups, the AFP will modify and expand the 2008 AFP Service Codes in order to present a truly Global Common Code set. We anticipate that the project will be completed in the 4th quarter, 2009.

ISO 2022 Registration

Tom Buschman, Chairman of TWIST reports:

In April 2009, TWIST will formally submit the TWIST BSB standard for registration without modification under ISO 20022. The standard was published 2006 using the TWIST XML syntax. A number of banks and others having implemented the standard, it is proposed that the existing version of the schema (and syntax) be retained. TWIST has continued to maintain this standard since its initial release. TWIST commits to:

1. participate in any evaluation of the standard; and
2. host maintenance of the standard

The submission will include:

1. Schema documents – Bank Billing Statement
2. Core files – TWIST Messages Core Schema
3. Specifications – TWIST BSB Requirements Document

The intended result of submission for registration under ISO 20022 are (1) ensuring continued consistency of the standard with other ISO 20022 standards and (2) facilitation of wider adoption of the BSB standard beyond the initial group of corporates and banks.

News from the Banks

Contact for more information: Erwan Le Toeuff at erwan.letoeuff@bnpparibas.com.

“Societe Generale went live with a first customer in November 2008 for accounts held in France. As Societe Generale ‘s solution is tailored to each corporate’s needs, Societe Generale is now working with another corporate, within the same geographical scope, to precisely define and plan the service delivery.”

For additional information contact your Societe Generale relationship manager.

“Standard Bank is currently implementing a new billing system and it is definitely our intention to enable billing according to the TWIST standard once this has been stabilised.”

For more information about the TWIST BSB at Standard Bank contact Richard Stocken at Richard.Stocken@standardbank.co.za.

Standard Chartered supports the TWIST BSB Standard for reporting bank fees.

For additional information about the TWIST BSB at Standard Chartered Bank contact Lars Hubinette at Lars.Hubinette@standardchartered.com.

Westpac supports the TWIST BSB Standard for reporting bank fees.

For information about the TWIST BSB at Westpac contact Phil King at philking@westpac.com.au or phone 61 2 8254 7519.

News from the Corporates

“GE continues to be take the lead on the International Bank compensation project and unlock the value in standardized electronic bank fee reporting in the TWIST BSB standard. The coverage of banks reporting production files to GE in this format now extends across 6 banks in 20 countries including Danske Bank (Europe – 4 locations), National Irish Bank (Ireland), Barclays (UK) , Socgen (France) and Citibank (12 locations).

For 2009, testing is already underway with partner banks for TWIST BSB reporting across four countries and we have commitments to commence testing for another 30 countries.

We will make further announcements in this regard at an appropriate time.”

Other Corporates have been working with their banks on implementing the BSB but they have chosen not to make public statements at this time. (If any corporates are interested in relating what they are doing with the BSB, please send in the details.)

News from the Software Vendors

Weiland Financial Group, a provider of account analysis software to corporates says

“As of this date we have a total of six large multi-national current customers who have either purchased or are very interested in acquiring the BSB processing upgrade to the BRMEdge system. We have prospects who, increasingly, are inquiring about the BSB and its availability. Our business contact for BSB interest is Don Enright, DJE@weiland-wfg.com 847-810-6115.”

Sun Tec says

“As a leading provider of Relationship-based Pricing and Centralized Billing solutions to the Financial Services industry, SunTec is committed to delivering solutions which meet the standards followed by the industry. TWIST BSB is one such standard for the distribution of electronic details which reflect the charges applied to clients. SunTec has delivered TWIST BSB output through its standard data interfacing platform, thus ensuring that future upgrades to the standard can be achieved through Meta data updates in much the same way as acquiring a new map for your navigation system. The user defines the structure and format of the source and requests output in the desired format and version. The facility has been trialed by various clients and is expected to be in production shortly.”

See press release

For additional information contact Sanju Pillai, +91 471 3918391, sanjup@suntecgroup.com.

TriSyn previously reported

“TriSyn Group has delivered its TWIST BSB solution which is actively being used in production. These TWIST BSB statements are being provided to their customer base. We are actively engaged in a number of other client projects to continue the rollout of this solution.

TriSyn Group is a provider of core banking applications including the industry leading commercial billing application Infopoint Account Analysis. For more information about TriSyn Group or Infopoint Account Analysis please contact Tim Goad at tim.goad@trisyngroup.com.”

Lastly you can help

• Pass this newsletter on to others who might be interested and email us to include them in future mailings.
• Corporates, you should contact your bank relationship managers to let them know of your interest in receiving the BSB.
• Let us know if your company or bank wishes to be publicly identified with the TWIST BSB project and what you are doing.

Best Regards,
Paul Burstein

paul.burstein@twiststandards.org