IBS Journal Supplement 2015


‘The platform can be configured, and it can support the different clearings we are looking to support, it just takes time, patience and tenacity and support from senior


management to get the project over the line.’ Cindy Murray, Bank of America Merrill Lynch


software development and then testing to the project scope. ‘With SEPA, there have been a lot of challenges with addition- al requirements that are coming to sup- port individual countries, so we have to be very cognizant of what Finland is requir- ing, what Spain is requiring and so on, and then make sure that we had the function- ality to support these requirements on a country-by-country basis,’ says Murray. There has also been customisation on a client-by-client basis, with regards to rules around certain payment types. Murray cites the example of salary payments, where cli- ents will have a special keyword associated to this payment file to make sure that the beneficiary information is hidden so that from a reporting standpoint, no one who is not in the HR department can see that information. ‘So it’s really important for us to understand how is that client sending us their payroll today, what key word are they using, and working out if we can support that keyword on the new platform,’ she comments. The next phase of the project for BAML


will be to focus on its international loca- tions. Singapore is the first country on the list, before an extension to other locations in Asia Pacific, such as China and Taiwan, before moving onto Australia. ‘In March, we will be integrating with MEPS+, which is


the high-value clearing network in Singa- pore,’ says Murray. BAML has mapped out its migration strategy for its international implementations, starting from building the foundations for high-value, low-val- ue and mass payments, then on a coun- try-by-country basis defining the require- ments unique to each location, before test- ing and then migrating clients. One area which will not be touched, at


least in the interim, is real-time payments (despite Australia and Singapore’s work to this end). This is largely due to BAML’s busi- ness focusing predominantly on the corpo- rate side outside of the US, says Murray. ‘We are certainly paying attention to Australia and to other countries which are contem- plating real-time, but we also have to look at who our customer is, what type of pay- ments they originate, and how important real-time will be on a country-by-country basis,’ she explains. Murray anticipates many operation- al benefits once the multi-year project is completed. ‘We will be able to process much higher volumes, and we will be able to provide much more robust reporting than we do today,’ she says. In addition, there will be more efficient use of data, for example Murray points out the bank will be able to take in a pure ISO file, identify the fields that are specific to the clearing, retain


© IBS Intelligence 2015


additional data in that file not needed for clearing, clear the payment and then pro- vide all the data back in the reconciliations file given back to clients. In addition ‘we are harmonising how we do our reporting across the globe. Even though it is not in focus in terms of the payment platform, we are harmonising our US data for consisten- cy in how it provides information back to our clients, with more timely, real-time and robust acknowledgements, and real-time information on when payments are reject- ed or returned’. Murray stresses that whilst the project has been a success so far, it has at times been frustratingly slow due to the com- plexity and wide scope. ‘The nature of the project is very high risk, so it requires an extensive amount of testing because you don’t want to put something into produc- tion and have some kind of issue with how you are processing payments.’ She con- cludes that overall, the Fundtech system has worked well in this phase of the pro- ject, and she is hopeful that will continue to be the case over the next generation of the initiative. ‘The platform can be config- ured, and it can support the different clear- ings we are looking to support, it just takes time, patience and tenacity and support from senior management to get the project over the line,’ she muses.


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case study: baml


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