Atos Origin and Integri launch Sepa testing service for Belgian banks

This service will allow banks to test their system for compliance with the SEPA Credit Transfer and Direct Debit requirements followed by Card Transactions in the near future.

With the introduction of the SEPA initiative, all electronic payments in Europe will be considered as a single domestic payments market making payment transactions easy and more efficient for bank customers. The new directive, however, increases the complexity of a bank's ICT operations. It is a critical task to reach compliance to the new directive rapidly as it impacts their payment products as well as the electronic processes that run in the back office.

The partnership enables all Belgian banks to test their conformance to this new European standard with an integrated solution for credit transfer, direct debit and card transactions. Integri will supply all test technology and related know-how for file transfers both for customer-to-bank and bank-to-bank transactions. Atos Origin will deliver the necessary services to support the bank with the actual field implementation of the test plan, including consulting and technical services. Depending on the specific needs of each financial institution, the joint offer can be customized.

Mr André Geunens, Marketing Director at Atos Origin commented: "Testing technology is a part of our core business. With this offer, we aim at allowing banks to gain a considerable amount of money and to shorten the time of bringing a solution to the market. This partnership is established to help banks with the complex migration, reduce time-to-market of products and improve general quality levels."

Mr Jan De Meester, CEO at Integri said: "It is great to be part of the design of a new payments environment." Mr De Meester added: "Building on 15 years of experience in transactional payments software testing, we are committed to offer - together with our partner - a comprehensive solution for a successful high quality implementation of this ambitious Euro-project."