BNY Mellon Treasury Services and Pegasystems have completed a "successful" pilot programme for Swift's new electronic bank account management scheme (Ebam).
The Ebam offering is designed to provide SwiftNet users with a range of automated bank account management services, including account opening, closing and maintenance.
The financial messaging outfit launched a pilot programme with three banks, including BNY Mellon, last May ahead of a planned roll out to customers early next year.
BNY Mellon's pilot also involved a client using Swift Alliance Lite, the Web-based tool that allows users to access the network without installing specific software.
Richard Delvaux, senior corporate market manager, Swift, says: "We believe that the delivery of the Ebam standards will foster process automation and be the catalyst for transforming the way corporates manage their bank accounts. Successful pilot programmes like the BNY Mellon-Pega collaboration clearly demonstrate Swift's ability to not just accommodate process automation, but to facilitate it in a user-friendly environment."
A recent Finextra survey found that 44% of corporates would switch banks to get better service, standardisation and automation through electronic bank account management processes.
At the moment, for the majority of corporates, it takes more than a week to open a new bank account. Even large multinationals are still largely reliant on manual processes when dealing with their banks, and are often under-resourced.
Nearly two thirds of banks recognise that winning new clients and improving loyalty are the primary drivers for delivering Ebam services. However, 53% of banks have made no plans yet to invest in improving account management services.