The banks - ABN Amro, Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Standard Chartered Bank - have worked together with Twist members to issue requirements for a complete range of standard XML-messages.

The Twist task force, led by Ernst & Young and Shell, says it will look to deliver one single, open and non-proprietary standard that can be used by any corporate and bank, irrespective of size, location or market position.

The Twist working group was formed and is led by the treasury operations department of Royal Dutch Shell and is focused on integration between electronic trading platforms, back office systems, payment systems and risk management/reporting systems.

The requirements cover a multi-agent and multi-payment method perspective, allowing corporates to use the same payment process for financial and commercial transactions and irrespective of the issuance of payments via electronic transfer, check issuance, direct debit or by using credit or debit cards. The material further includes requirements for security, authentication and authorization as well as recommendations for using unique payment reference numbers when sending payments through inter-bank clearing channels.

Tom Buschman, treasury development manager for Shell treasury centre and co-ordinator of Twist, comments: "By releasing first the output as requirements for standards, Twist invites others in the industry to provide their highly valuable input whilst simultaneously driving further convergence between standards published by Twist, Swift, IFX and others in this area."

Banks, corporations, software providers and consultants are invited to provide feedback on the material by the end of June. The material can be requested by sending an email to Tom Buschman at Shell or Steven Hartjes at Ernst & Young: tom.buschman@shell.com or steven.hartjes@ey.nl.