"SWIFT's eBAM initiative holds tremendous market value as a standard for J.P. Morgan, clients and vendors, and works best with industry security models such as SWIFT Digital Interoperability and open standards"

SWIFT's eBAM initiative establishes a standard, electronic format designed to facilitate the account management and audit activity between a financial institution and its clients... Clients are able to open, maintain and close accounts electronically across its multiple banking partners, thereby reducing manual paper-based processes and improving security and controls through audit reporting of account management activity. Clients benefit from faster processing, accelerated response times and increased visibility into banking processes.

J.P. Morgan already has implemented eBAM for its clients that connect directly with the bank, thus eliminating the exchange of paper requests and replacing the need for 'wet' signatures. This model has proven to be cost effective and efficient for all participants.

"SWIFT's eBAM initiative holds tremendous market value as a standard for J.P. Morgan, clients and vendors, and works best with industry security models such as SWIFT Digital Interoperability and open standards," said Lloyd O'Connor, managing director, J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. "J.P. Morgan sees eBAM as an important element to addressing the multi-bank interoperability needs of clients and we support the increased openness of the banking community toward bank agnostic channels. We believe it's a natural evolution of the industry."

Luc Meurant, Head of Banking, Supply Chain and Corporate Markets, SWIFT added: "EBAM is a addressing a business area where paper and fax still rule. SWIFT expects this solution to facilitate automation, efficiency and cost reduction, both for banks and corporates. In combination with personal digital signatures, it has the potential to change the future of corporate bank account and mandate management."

As a founding member of SWIFT's eBAM working group, J.P. Morgan has played a key role in advancing the development of eBAM standards. J.P. Morgan has demonstrated leadership in schema development, the submission of standards for ISO review and ongoing technical evaluation.