The agreement comprised outbound and inbound Euro traffic including Target2 payments and was the largest bank to bank payment clearing and settlement contract of 2007.

The joint implementation teams successfully finalised the deployment in Q1 2008. Both banks recognised that the ease of integration and time-to-market had been the key factors in ensuring that the tie up was successful. HBOS is now enabled to benefit from one channel for SEPA and non-SEPA EUR transactions.

One of the reasons for the successful integration was that "any challenges have been managed and resolved by adopting an, open transparent and collaborative approach", says Lucien Lorang, Global Head Products & Account Management at Fortis Payments Services. "The joint analysis of the payment flows uncovered improvement opportunities which are partly deployed already."

Graeme Donald Head of Industry & Products at HBOS, added, "This was one of the biggest payment related changes HBOS has had to manage and proves we can deliver big external projects. We were delighted that this strategically important project, with mandatory timelines, was delivered on time, within budget and with no customer impact whatsoever."

Michael Turner, Head of Cash Management Sales for Banks & Europe, Transaction Banking at Fortis believes that the key to the success was that "whilst the payments business is often perceived as a 'commodity' business this deal proves that a strong relationship ethos still counts for much and that whilst winning a deal is extremely satisfying, delivering an efficient implementation can be even more so".

Now this deal is "bedded in" it leaves the two banks in a position to deepen their relationship and discussions are "well under way on areas such as driving future efficiencies, SEPA Direct Debit, Business Continuity, shared supplier User Groups and Cash and Liquidity Management."