Source: TietoEnator
TietoEnator, a leading solution & service provider to financial institutions (FI’s) and Sentenial, an international supplier of total direct debit process solutions, announced to have signed a partnership agreement which enables TietoEnator to deploy Sentenial’s EuroDebit solution as a part of its total offering for SEPA Direct Debits to financial institutions.
These combined solutions will enable the FI’s to handle direct debits both nationally and internationally and the solutions will be fully SEPA-compliant. EuroDebit will complement TietoEnator’s own SEPA Direct Debit offering. This partnership recognises the need for FI’s to implement a SEPA compliant solution by the deadline of 1st January 2008, while also extracting business value from that investment.
TietoEnator approached Sentenial after recognising Sentenial leading position in Direct Debit solutions to corporate customers, and Sentenial’s EuroDebit solution will easily be adapted to complement TietoEnator’s processing engine for Direct Debits in a FI environment.
Banks need to address the issue of how their direct debit mechanisms would be SEPA-enabled by 2008, and TietoEnator decided to partner with Sentenial following a capability testing of the company’s EuroDebit product. EuroDebit will in combination with TietoEnator’s Direct Debit engine offer an end-to-end solution allowing FI’s and their customers to make significant cost savings and increased revenues from value added services associated with direct debit payments.
TietoEnator offer its SEPA Direct Debit solution to the large European banks. The partnership will become active with immediate effect and the combined solution will be offered to FI’s through on-site software deployment at banks or through an outsourced model which will manage the entire direct debit process requirements integrated with all other payment instruments.
By incorporating EuroDebit as a part of TietoEnator’s Direct Debit offering, banks can extend their direct debit service offerings further into the corporate financial value chain. It enables better management of the direct debit processing cycle achieving straight through processing and comprehensive reporting. In addition, it allows a business to implement an effective risk management strategy through trend identification, automated exception handling and customer risk profiling.
Jon Alvar Øyasæter, SVP TietoEnator, said: "This partnership will make TietoEnator’s offering more compelling and will be key to financial institutions to ensure they are SEPA-compliant across their entire infrastructure. To us, Sentenial with its proven technology through existing deployments is a clear partner of choice in the area of direct debit payment processing."
Sean Fitzgerald, CEO of Sentenial, said: "Financial Institutions are not addressing how they will practically internationalise their direct debit payment processes. With the SEPA 2008 deadline less than 14 months away, FI’s must look to urgently source, plan and implement a SEPA-compliant solution. Sentenial’s partnership with TietoEnator will give FI’s a robust solution with a flexible implementation plan allowing FIs to extract more value from their SEPA compliance investment."