Swift announced today that the SEPA Testing Programme has started nearly one month ahead of schedule.
The Programme, initiated by major European banks, and operated by SWIFT, enables all parties concerned to perform comprehensive testing that simulates payments under SEPA.
More than 185 SWIFT customers have already registered to the SEPA Testing Programme and have now received 'smart test messages', test cases and 'directory specifications', which represent the first step that banks and automated clearing houses (ACHs) must take to test their compliance with SEPA standards.
The Programme makes it possible to test application response for all incoming or outgoing SEPA payment messages. Since these tools are available on the institutions' own sites, they can be used at their discretion, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without any external coordination with other partner institutions. Banks can test compliance at their own pace, and be confident that other institutions registered in the programme will use the same testing process. This will help reach the much needed homogeneity of implementation amongst SEPA stakeholders.
In July, SWIFT will complement this first step with a central testing application (STaQS). Banks will then be able to check that their systems can send and receive SEPA-compliant payments, using the same test messages irrespective of their clearing and settlement mechanisms. ACHs will be able to test that their specifications are SEPA compliant at the operational level.
"It is important that banks test both incoming and outgoing payments, which is a prerequisite to signing the SEPA self-assessment with the EPC. This testing is best done against a platform that banks can use at their discretion. This was the philosophy of the SEPA Test Advisory Group when we developed the SEPA Testing Programme: flexibility in its adoption and consistency in its execution," said Lars Schwabe, SEPA product manager, JPMorgan Treasury Services and Vice-Chairman of the SEPA Test Advisory Group.
"The SEPA Testing Programme is now available and allows us, together with our Clearing and Settlement Mechanisms to start testing earlier in the process. This is good news, since we all know the timescale for the January 2008 SEPA launch is very tight. These tools also help market participants demonstrate how they will ensure SEPA compliance," says Alfredo Rodriguez, Director Global Operations, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA).
The testing programme consists of SWIFT Smart Test Messages, Test Cases, Simulation Test and Qualification Service (STaQs), SWIFT Reference Data Directories for IBAN/BIC, the SEPA Routing Directory and the SWIFTNet messaging service.
The following financial institutions have initiated the SEPA Testing Programme:
- ABN AMRO
- Bank of America
- Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA)
- Banco Santander Central Hispano
- Banco Popular Español
- Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne
- CitiCommerzbank
- Crédit Mutuel - CIC
- Deutsche Bank
- Fortis
- ING
- JPMorgan Chase
- NATIXIS and Group Banques
- Populaires
- Nordea
- Intesa SANPAOLO
- SEB
- Société Générale
- UBS