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SWIFT MOU with EACT
30.11.2006 (isjforum) The EACT, European Associations of Corporate Treasurers, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SWIFT, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
The move is to provide a framework for co-operation between them. The MoU will focus on the EACT’s market initiative, CAST (Corporate Action on Standards) and the development of other international payment standards. The EACT will not develop new standards, rather, as a result of CAST projects, will deliver recommendations on existing standards and requirements for new ones in areas such as the Supply Chain and Trade Financing. In particular, SWIFT will help EACT and the corporate community in developing structured remittance information to be used in the ISO 20022 payments messages.The advice of both organisations is regularly sought by the EU Commission and the European Central Bank. The agreement acknowledges the complementary nature of each organisation’s role and both organisations agree to consult and challenge their respective points of view and coordinate positions, whenever possible.
CAST includes projects to encourage greater standardisation and process automation in bank-to-corporate and corporate-to-corporate communications across the whole financial supply chain. CAST is looking specifically at business models, best practices and standardization in the area of remittance information (and e-reconciliation), digital identity and e-invoicing. The objective is to define end-user requirements in these areas, compare them with any existing standards to detect shortcomings and identify 'best of breed' solutions whenever a single solution is not practical or feasible. In addition, CAST addresses the specific issue of interoperability between EBPP operators and Certification Authorities in Europe.
SWIFT is committed to work together with corporates and financial institutions. In addition to the expertise that SWIFT will provide to the CAST initiative, it will ensure that schemes and practices developed are reflected in its ISO 20022 (UNIFI) compliant business process models and supported by the derived transaction standards. Johan Kestens, Member of the Executive Committee, Head of Marketing, of SWIFT commented: ”We are very pleased to formalise our cooperation with the EACT which already participates with some of its members in a number of SWIFT and ISO working groups. SWIFT plans to work closely with the CAST teams in areas such as Supply Chain and Trade Services where SWIFT and its members are focusing attention. The agreement will avoid overlapping and duplication of effort and accelerate the development of new standards in those areas which are vitally important for banks and corporates alike.”
Pierre Poncet, the EACT Chairman commented on this important development: “EACT is very pleased that SWIFT will support its CAST initiative and provide its standards and modeling expertise to the team. CAST’s objective is not to develop new standards directly but to work with corporates, banks, ERP providers and other market participants to evaluate proposed standards and define clear business requirements for new standards allowing E2E STP of the Financial Value Chain . EACT supports ISO 20022 ( UNIFI ) in the financial area and other internationally recognized standards in other areas . The results of CAST projects will be published and available to all stakeholders .EACT encourages cooperation among standards organizations and advocates a strong community-based path for validation and adoption of new standards.”