STeP Real-time Liquidity Management, SunGard’s real-time cash reporting and liquidity management solution has been awarded SWIFTNet Ready Nostro Account Information labels for both Users and Providers for 2006. This year’s accreditation marks the fifth consecutive year that SunGard’s solution has been awarded the SWIFTNet Ready certifications. SunGard's STeP Real-time Liquidity Management provides a secure, real-time view of account information both inside and outside an institution, incorporating SWIFT's XML structured Query and Response messages to help expedite transaction processing over SWIFT's IP-based messaging platform, SWIFTNet.

STeP intelliTRACS, SunGard's automated exceptions management solution, has been awarded SWIFTNet Ready for Exceptions & Investigations for the second consecutive year. SunGard has been involved in the development and pilot of the new SWIFTNet Exceptions & Investigations messages since the inception of the working group in 2003.

STeP intelliMATCH, SunGard's real-time matching and reconciliation solution, has been awarded SWIFTReady Gold for both Cash and Securities Reconciliation for the seventh consecutive year. STeP intelliMATCH provides a robust matching engine and a common platform for the reconciliation of multiple instruments including cash transactions, OTC derivatives, securities positions and movements, and trade confirmations and advices.

Lázaro Campos, head of banking industry division, SWIFT, commented, “We are very pleased to again award SunGard SWIFTNet Ready accreditations for Nostro Account Information and Exceptions & Investigations and, SWIFTReady Gold accreditations for Cash and Securities Reconciliation. SunGard continues to provide the industry with solutions that meet SWIFT’s strict guidelines for standardization and is awarded accreditations year after year. The availability of applications supporting SWIFT's XML standards and connectivity to SWIFTNet is key to helping ensure that the industry players derive true benefit from SWIFTSolutions."

Tom King, president of SunGard's STeP business unit, said, "We work closely with SWIFT and member banks to help define and implement messaging standards to the financial services industry. The annual SWIFT accreditation process underlines our continued commitment to delivering high quality solutions that will help automate transaction management for banks, securities firms, and corporations."

Separately, SunGard today announced that FirstRand Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary of FirstRand Limited which is one of South Afric'’s largest financial services groups, has expanded its relationship with SunGard to manage its transaction processing across the enterprise.

FirstRand Bank, which currently uses SunGard's MINT SWIFTNet solution, will implement additional components of MINT SWIFTNet solutions, integrated with SunGard's enterprise matching and reconciliation and exception management solution, intelliSUITE to achieve a holistic approach to transaction management.

FirstRand Bank will build upon its implementation of MINT SWIFTNet for FileAct, currently used for bulk messaging, by implementing additional SWIFTNet solutions that span multiple services for a cohesive SWIFTNet operation. The bank will pilot the SWIFTNet Phase 2 migration process using MINT SWIFTNet solutions. The implementation of intelliSUITE will consolidate the automation of reconciliation and exception management for cash, securities, confirmations, and system to system messages to a single and integrated platform, across the bank's numerous business units. Rules-based technology helps ensure that the bank's best practices are implemented in the transaction management process, to help improve real-time control of operations and reduce settlement risk.

Rob Green, head of payments, FirstRand Banking Group Treasury, commented, "By choosing SunGard, which can supply both messaging and transaction processing solutions in an integrated manner across our lines of business, we are confident that the bank will achieve improved STP while lowering operational risk and the cost of ownership with a single platform."

Tom King, president of SunGard's STeP business unit, commented, "We have worked closely with FirstRand Bank to understand the scope of its business and have produced a business model that supports an enterprise-wide transaction management solution for the group. By consolidating operations to a standard process on a single platform, SunGard STeP will help FirstRand Bank improve operational efficiencies while helping reduce operational, financial, and vendor risk."