Società Interbancaria per l'Automazione (SIA), the Italian provider of IT solutions and services for the banking and financial community, has signed a distribution agreement with Eastern Network covering 18 Middle East countries.
Cristina Astore, sales manager, SIA, says the Middle-East is an attractive market for the company, as central banks and stock exchanges in the region are actively looking to improve their infrastructure.
"If a country doesn't have a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) we can help them achieve this, and then also look at other infrastructure such as automated clearing houses (ACH) and central securities depositaries (CSD)," she says. "We can also help replace existing systems with our solutions, which are used to run critical infrastructure in Italy and for the European Banking Association with STEP2.
"But we need a local presence and a close understanding of the culture and business practices in these markets, and that is why we are working through Eastern Network."
Eastern Network has been delivering computing and communication technologies in the Middle East since 1984. Under the new arrangement it will work with SIA to distribute the SIA Financial System, which comprises solutions for real-time gross settlement, government securities management, automated clearing house, trading platform and central securities depository and registry.