Bankers Almanac Expands International Payments Solution at Sibos

LONDON - Bankers Almanac, the leading provider of reference data for international payments (www.bankersalmanac.com/addcon/products/payments.aspx), due diligence and risk assessment has further enhanced its international payments solution to help improve efficiency in the processing of cross-border and domestic transactions.

Bankers Almanac’s International Bank Account Number (IBAN) Search allows clients to validate IBANs through to the clearing code level and identify the issuing bank if the IBAN is invalid. To enable compliance with Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) regulations, Bankers Almanac has improved its IBAN Search with the addition of over 73,000 IBAN BICs. These are the Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) issued alongside IBANs originating from each specific clearing code and are provided for use when making SEPA compliant payments.

The IBAN Search is an integral part of Bankersalmanac.com’s payments solution and supports the comprehensive settlement data currently provided. Bankers Almanac continues to be the only supplier of Standard Settlements Instructions (SSIs) to operate a 90-day verification and update cycle for this data. It is also the only commercially available solution that provides the SWIFT BIC attached to each SSI list allowing banks to identify the correct counterpart instructions quickly and send messages accordingly.

To facilitate accurate messaging in payments, Bankers Almanac also holds the connected SWIFT BIC equivalent for the unconnected BICs on its database as well as the principal location for SWIFT BIC and clearing code. Bankersalmanac.com’s strict editorial policy ensures that each bank confirms these details before they are made available to users, helping to ensure accuracy and create confidence in the quality of the data.

Commenting on the developments, Ben Cleaveley, Senior Product Manager for Bankers Almanac said: “Helping clients to comply with SEPA remains a high priority for Bankers Almanac. We are committed to providing accurate data within a product that can form an integral part of their international payments processing operations.”

Bankersalmanac.com will be demonstrating its enhanced payments offering at Sibos 2009 in Hong Kong during the week 14-18 September. To make an appointment for a demonstration visit www.bankersalmanac.com/info/sibos2009.aspx

About Bankers Almanac

Bankers Almanac is the leading source of reference data for international payments, bank compliance and bank risk assessment. For over 160 years it has been a single point of reference for global banking information. Bankers Almanac payments data helps improve the efficiency of transactions by providing essential routing information such as SWIFT/BICs and national clearing codes.

Our Due Diligence Repository contains primary data required by banks to conduct compliance checks on their counterparties. Bankers Almanac partners influential financial associations and evolves its reference data solutions to meet the needs of the industry. With offices in Europe, Asia and USA, Bankers Almanac is in continuous contact with banks and regulatory authorities to provide up-to-date, verified data that can be consistently relied upon.

All press enquiries to: Jane Sutton Marketing Manager +44(0)1342-335932 Email: marketing@bankersalmanac.com

Source: Bankers Almanac

All press enquiries to: Jane Sutton, Marketing Manager, +44(0)1342-335932, Email: marketing at bankersalmanac.com