The growing SWIFT network is the secure choice of the global banking community for routing payments and this new service, which is an extension of VocaLink's Service Bureau, will provide a viable, low cost, hosted connectivity service to SWIFTNet. The service removes banks' in-house operational costs of managing multiple bank relationships whilst enabling them to benefit from economies of scale. Corporate customers will also benefit by gaining easier access to their chosen payment service provider and banks through a single access point for all of their payments, regardless of the format. This approach allows companies to gain total visibility of their cash positions on accounts across the globe.

The partnership with BBP strengthens VocaLink's core offering to provide its customers with high volume, resilient, reliable payments processing in a cost effective environment. The collaboration will also enable VocaLink to offer greater flexibility for designing efficient migration and payments consolidation strategies for banks, allowing them to comply with SEPA rules and reap the benefits of cost reduction and improved control.

Per Trifunovic, CEO at BBP, comments: "BBP operates the world's number one SWIFT Service Bureau and has a solid track record of running faultless outsourced SWIFT services for over 200 customers in more than 30 countries worldwide. Our partnership with VocaLink allows us to deliver comprehensive and first class services to all of the major mainland European markets."

Fred Bär, Managing Director for Euro Services and Channels at VocaLink, comments: "By offering SWIFT capabilities and standards with BBP, VocaLink's customers will benefit from a single route to SWIFT. This greatly reduces the operational overhead of managing SWIFT internally by outsourcing to SWIFT certified specialists, enabling banks to focus on their core business. As a result, we are able to fulfil the highest requirements in terms of stability, ay, availability and security at the same time"