Ocean Bank, the largest independent commercial bank headquartered in Florida, has completed its first FEDLINE Direct transaction because of the recently implemented integrated payment engine ST-Pymnts from Misys, a global leader in software solutions.
Ocean Bank is expanding its corporate banking business and it was critical to be able to offer its customers a wire transfer service securely and efficiently via FEDLINE Direct, the new IP-based payments interface replacing the Federal Reserve's traditional FEDWIRE SNA-based Interface. The Federal Reserve is encouraging all of its existing FEDWIRE large bank users to move to FEDLINE Direct as part of an efficiency and service improvement program. Ocean Bank has taken the lead as the first user of Misys' ST-Pymnts certified FEDLINE Direct Solution and is one of the first banks nationwide to see the benefits surrounding flexibility, interoperability and payments automation. In the near future Misys will be assisting other users to move to this new interface.
"Our short-term goal is to be the leader in corporate payments in South Florida. We wanted to offer payments services to our customers via the new FEDLINE Direct but needed the right payments processing solution to be able to fulfill that goal. Furthermore FEDLINE Direct is also fully integrated with our Corporate Cash Management system. We are now confident that we will attract new business because of our capability to handle these payments quickly and efficiently for our customers, thanks to Misys," said Alberto L. Vega, C.P.A., Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ocean Bank. "The experience of the team at Misys and the ability of its ST-Pymnts solution to process and manage the rapidly rising volume of transactions with minimal risk were critical to us to move forward with Misys to FEDLINE Direct. We can now focus on expanding the business without scalability or compliance concerns for the foreseeable future," he added.
Ernie Cook, Payments & Compliance Solutions Manager, Misys Banking, adds, "Designed to process and control all wire transfers and messages associated with funds settlement, ST-Pymnts is the ideal solution for banks wanting to grow their payments business with increasing efficiency while minimizing risk. The US market will be seeing more and more banks move to FEDLINE Direct in order to improve their payment services. Our ST-Payments solution is more than capable of meeting this demand and we are delighted that we are bringing real value to Ocean Bank, one of the innovators in the sector. Ocean Bank is now able to provide a better, more secure service to its customers and we look forward to working even more closely with the bank as it realizes their growth plans in the future."
Ocean Bank will continue to benefit from ST-Pymnts integrated OFAC process to complement the bank's secure wire transfer process. It ensures that it meets the requirements of the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). It automatically screens every incoming and outgoing payment transaction for any data relevant to the Treasury Department's list of blocked accounts, and Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).