This software combination can interface with many payment systems; accept many types of structured messages and support business rules and activity monitoring. Customers using this integrated solution will also benefit from lower operational costs and reduced manual intervention thanks to improved straight through processing.

By adopting this new integrated solution that can filter many types of incoming or outgoing SWIFT message, customers in banking, capital markets, payments and corporate finance will improve their ability to identify and stop illegal transactions such as money laundering. FircoSoft OFAC-Agent Suite can also detect potentially high-risk financial customers before they are able to open a new account or start a business relationship, while complying with financial services regulations.

FircoSoft, whose OFAC-Agent Suite is currently used by over 250 institutions worldwide, chose BizTalk Server 2006 as the basis of this integrated solution because of its ease of implementation and its open standards and web services support capabilities.

Sheida Hadji-Ashrafi, industry manager for payments and financial messaging at Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said, "With regulations such as the USA Patriot Act, the UK Proceeds from Crime Act and the EU directive on money laundering, and regulatory bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force, it is vital that firms have the ability to recognise and act on suspicious financial transactions. Together with FircoSoft, we have done our best to develop a simple, out-of-the-box, cost-effective solution for detecting and filtering errant SWIFT messages. It can help banks to put in place appropriate controls against financial crime and avoid potential fines and reputation damage."

"Integrating our solution with BizTalk Server 2006 is a major step to help us position FircoSoft as the compliance and anti-money laundering market standard filtering solution and we are delighted with the outcome," said Thierry Haensenberger, chief technology officer at FircoSoft.

"We are pleased that FircoSoft has chosen BizTalk Server 2006 in order to enhance its world-class OFAC-Agent Suite solution offering. Through its ability to integrate a vast array of enterprise systems and applications, BizTalk Server will help FircoSoft customers integrate watch-list filtering solutions with many payment systems or message formats, enabling them to bring their solutions to market faster than before," said Steven Martin, group product manager for the business process and integration division at Microsoft.