One of Europe's largest financial institutions with over EUR 500 billion in assets, Fortis has rolled out the iMTS solution in its Shared International Payments Centre (SIPC) that supports all of the bank's international payment processing for its Belgian operations. In completing this phase of its iMTS rollout, Fortis has successfully taken its first step in harmonizing its entire global payments platform.

Ranked in the top 20 of European financial institutions and the largest bank in Belgium and Luxembourg with a market capitalization of EUR 28.6 billion, Fortis is a financial institution that grew both organically and by acquisition to have many disparate systems as the backbone of its payment processing operations. With a significant retail and wholesale banking client user base initiating more than 15 million international payments per year, customers demanded fast, secure, accurate and continuous movement of funds. Fortis sought a solution that would enable it to integrate and consolidate its international payment solutions onto a single platform, exploit operational efficiencies in streamlining its operations, and enhance the products and services it provides to its customers.

"The European payments landscape in particular is especially dynamic and challenging at the present time," said Marc Aguilar, general manager of Payments at Fortis Bank. "In addition to liquidity challenges, competitive pressures and the new regulatory mandate are forcing a reduction in price for cross-border payments, so both improved efficiency and improved products and services become essential. It was paramount that our project with IntraNet would enable Fortis to take advantage of rapidly changing and emerging opportunities, maintain its market-leading status, and continue to provide first-class service to its customers well into the future. iMTS provides enhanced queuing management and payment routing functionalities, allowing performance handling of significant volumes of complex payments. IntraNet Worldwide was the logical partner for Fortis."

Designed to meet the varied payment processing needs of the wholesale banking industries worldwide, iMTS moves money, settles multiple currencies, and streamlines operations for 23 of the top 100 global banks and 41 of the top 100 U.S. banks. iMTS has already enabled Fortis to realize many of the expected benefits of streamlining its operations. Further phases of the project will see the SIPC model rolled out in the Netherlands later this year. Additional requirements for expansion in the global payments market can now be met within the single iMTS system, supporting the migration of businesses to one Fortis brand and sustaining the Fortis business growth strategy.

"IntraNet's expanding relationship with Fortis is proof-positive of the measurable value that we’re delivering to our global customer base," said Dennis D. Jorgensen, president and CEO of IntraNet Worldwide. "Fortis is a great partner for IntraNet, and its innovative approach to using technology to deliver on its commitment to providing the most convenient service is unique. We are pleased to provide Fortis with the advanced technology and applications to continue to meet its forward-thinking goals."