Experian, the global information services company, announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Clear2Pay, the Brussels-headquartered international payments technology company.
The partnership will see Bank Wizard, Experian's bank account and validation software, embedded in Clear2Pay's Open Payment Framework (OPF), the company's end-to-end payment processing system used by European banks in 44 countries.
The agreement will enable Clear2Pay to offer its customers a market leading data and validation component integrated within its payment engine. Experian Payments, the division of Experian that provides data validation and payment processing software, will gain a strong route into the European banking market.
Bank Wizard is designed specifically to undertake bank account validation for banks and corporates operating internationally. The system minimises errors by enabling customers to check the validity of bank details before a payment is sent to a clearing house or another bank. The software will be embedded as part of Clear2Pay's OPF which enables financial institutions to improve internal payments processing efficiencies whilst providing clients with faster, more efficient payment services.
The partnership between the two companies comes at a time when the payments landscape is becoming increasingly more European focussed under the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Furthermore, market requirements, such as SEPA Direct Credit and SEPA Direct Debit, are reinforcing the importance of validation as a core part of banking in Europe.
Mark Hartley, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Clear2Pay, said: "Experian Payments is a market leader when it comes to data validation and our partnership will enable us to offer our customers the industry's most sophisticated bank account validation tool as part of our end-to-end payments offering."
Jon Burghart, Sales Director at Experian Payments, commented: "The partnership brings together two market leaders in their respective fields and provides a compelling proposition which will also support our European growth strategy. Bank account validation is becoming even more important for br banks with new payment channels, such as SEPA, emerging. As a result, it is crucial that banks can rely on their payments processing systems to reduce the number of rejected payments as these have a direct impact on administration costs and customer service."
Experian Payments, which recently re-branded from Eiger Systems, leverages Experian's data and global presence to develop international corporate payments services to help both corporates and banks to make their payments correctly and efficiently.