Developed by Eiger Systems, Europe's leading developer of validation and payment solutions for automated banking and e-commerce, BANK WIZARD is used extensively by Direct Debit and Direct Credit Originators in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

"BANK WIZARD – Republic of Ireland" is an additional country module providing users with the ability to validate bank details for bank accounts that use either the IRECC (Irish Retail Electronic Payments Clearing Company) or IRIS (Irish Real-time Interbank Settlement Company) payment systems. Irish users will find BANK WIZARD particularly useful in complying with the new modulus validation rules that came into effect on 1 May 2005 with the introduction of Paperless Direct Debit (PDD).

Mark Bish, BANK WIZARD Product Manager at Eiger Systems explains that reducing administration costs and improving customer service are two key benefits of implementing BANK WIZARD: "BANK WIZARD notifies users immediately at the point of data entry whenever a bank account or sort code is entered incorrectly. This reduces the number of errors made either by data entry clerks or by customers themselves setting up Direct Debits over the Internet. This in turn minimises the number of erroneous transactions that require manual correction. The end result is the near elimination of costly data entry errors."

BANK WIZARD user, the HSA group, which incorporates Leeds based health plan provider LHF, has recently implemented the Republic of Ireland module within its Customer Services department.

"HSA Customer Services department now uses BANK WIZARD Republic of Ireland alongside the UK module to ensure that the details given by the customers are correct at the time of collection. It is also used to validate bank account details for Direct Credits made to customer accounts.

For those of our customers who subscribe to payment plans online, BANK WIZARD is embedded within the online application on our website, providing complete validation of bank account details from both the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

BANK WIZARD enhances the effectiveness of the payment process considerably, which in turn improves customer service levels and, through the elimination of errors, reduces the time and cost involved in administering customer accounts."

BANK WIZARD is a single software solution that supports validation for one or more countries and can be integrated within the user's business application or operate as a standalone solution for scanning single account numbers or batch files.

Regular data updates are made available via a secure Internet site, ensuring that users continually benefit from the most up-to-date information. BANK WIZARD supports a wide range of platforms and is available for all main Operating Systems.

The new Republic of Ireland module is suitable for existing users of BANK WIZARD that make payments in Ireland, Irish companies with domestic or international operations or Irish banks that make or receive cross-border payments. BANK WIZARD also supports the formation and validation of IBANs (International Bank Account Numbers).