GXS has begun initial implementations of its hosted EBICS solution, with full commercialization planned later this year.

With the new EBICS offering from GXS, banks are able to easily connect to corporate customers who are migrating from the retired FTAM and ETEBAC X.25 protocols to the new SEPA compliant protocol, EBICS. The Electronic Banking Internet Communications Standard (EBICS) was created as an internet-based communications protocol to enable the exchange of all types of domestic files (e.g. CFONB France, DTAUS Germany) and SEPA compliant ISO 20022 XML files. While EBICS presented Corporates with an inexpensive and easy communications option, banks needed to implement expensive and hard to maintain EBICS Server software in order to exchange data.

"GXS offers an attractive alternative to financial institutions that do not want to invest in building technology infrastructure and staffing a client delivery organization to support corporate connectivity requests ," said Patricia Hines, director of financial services industry marketing at GXS. "With our new EBICS offering, banks can now leverage GXS to offer clients connectivity via all of the popular host-to-host protocols and SWIFT."