Tieto, a leading financial value chain service provider, today announced that it will add SWIFTNet connectivity to its Payment Gateway for Corporates. The Tieto Payment Gateway speeds up and simplifies corporate access to banks by combining value added services such as message reformatting and data enrichment with single point of connectivity. Today the service allows corporates access to all banks in the Nordic region. During spring 2010 the service will be further enhanced with SWIFTNet connectivity. Access to SWIFT will significantly increase the number of banks that can be reached via the service. This allows corporates to further simplify their bank connectivity and gain additional benefits such as improved visibility of all cash positions and improved automation, leading to better cash and liquidity management as well as easier regulatory compliance.

The corporate world now operates within a cross-border networked economy but for the vast majority of organizations their internal structures and processes still echo those of the national markets leading to inefficiencies and wasted resources. A prime example of this is the complex and costly ways businesses manage payments through their global network of banks. It is estimated that on average it costs a corporate between 20,000 and 50,000 EUR per channel annually to maintain connections to their banks.

Alain Raes, Chief Executive Officer, EMEA at SWIFT says: "I am very pleased with the initiative of Tieto, a strong regional partner, to create one of the first SWIFT Service bureaus with a main focus on corporates. Using a Service bureau has become the preferred way of connecting to SWIFTNet for many of our new customers. The Nordic region with many multi-national players shows a big interest in our services. This initiative is making it easier for them to join SWIFT."

"It is my pleasure to announce the addition of SWIFTNet connectivity to our Payment Gateway service by introducing Tieto's SWIFT Service Bureau", says Mats Wikström, Head of Value Networks, Tieto. "Cost reduction and increasing process efficiencies have become the top priorities for corporates. However, existing processes combined with increasing multi-country dynamics have made it increasingly difficult for corporate treasury departments to manage and monitor cash movements. The access to SWIFT will be a milestone allowing our customers to manage their cash positions in one unified way globally."