Following a competitive bid process overseen by Ernst & Young, SmartVista will replace TELERED's legacy processing platform enabling the Company to transform its payment business and introduce new services for its clients.

As Panama's national processor and switch TELERED currently runs ATM acquiring and network management for all 38 of the country's financial institutions. The network totals 1,200 ATMs and TELERED supports all aspects of ATM management and transaction processing including clearing and settlement. TELERED also acts as the scheme manager for Panama's national debit card program "Clave".

The project to update TELERED's payments infrastructure will be completed over a number of phases. Initially, BPC will implement its SmartSwitch and SmartATM solutions, part of the end-to-end SmartVista Suite of e-payments products. SmartSwitch is a sophisticated routing and authorization engine which in conjunction with SmartATM will support transaction processing and ATM network service and monitoring. SmartVista will also support external interfaces to Banknet and Visanet.

With the availability of SmartVista technology TELERED will be able to start executing its far reaching strategy, including upgrading the network to support EMV processing, providing added value services to cardholders, expanding the network to include self-service kiosks. TELERED will also benefit from a significantly lower TCO, comprehensive billing systems and high availability for mission critical on-line services.

In future phases of the project SmartVista will be supporting POS acquisition and management, integration to i-banking services, utility bill payments, fraud prevention, m-commerce and cash management across the ATM network.

"This change in our technology infrastructure demands the most robust software solution and a partner with the ability to undertake a multi-year, highly complex implementation. In SmartVista and BPC we have found both. With the support of Ernst & Young we conducted an exhaustive evaluation of a number of vendors and BPC met all our requirements as a technology provider and long term partner" said Ramiro Wong, CEO, TELERED S.A. "We are eagerly anticipating the completion of phase one when we will be able to significantly improve the service we provide to our clients and their customers. In addition we are looking forward to major operational savings thanks to the modern functionality and architecture of SmartVista".

"We are excited to have been selected to form the backbone of Panama's card payments infrastructure. SmartVista's comprehensive functionality, high availability and scalability will transform the way TELERED runs its business. We well understand the responsibility we have to deliver this mission critical project and are committed to working with TELERED and its client banks to ensure a seamless and on time implementation" added Vasily Grigoriev, CEO BPC Banking Technologies.