Microsoft Announces SWIFT Recertification of BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT for Banks and Corporate Treasuries

Microsoft continues to take the lead in driving corporate treasury technology innovation.

AMSTERDAM, October 26, 2010 - Microsoft Corp. today announced at Sibos 2010, the industry's premier
global financial services forum, that BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT has been
awarded the SWIFTReady Financial EAI label for 2010 - achieving seven
continuous years of SWIFT certification. BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT is
included in the license of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 and is used by
global banks and corporate treasuries, including Microsoft's own treasury
function.

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For years, banks and corporates have struggled to implement standard
formats. Microsoft is taking a leadership role in Common Global
Implementation (CGI), along with SWIFT and partner banks, to define a
standard implementation of ISO20022 XML for transaction exchange over the
SWIFT network. This leverages BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT and will reduce
the cost and complexity of operations for treasuries and banks alike.

"Banks and other financial institutions are faced with a daunting
challenge - a multitude of applications and systems that need to be
integrated with customers, partners and external financial networks,
including SWIFT," said Karen Cone, general manager, Worldwide Financial
Services, Microsoft. "To address this integration complexity and to simplify
adoption of mandated format changes, BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT, an
integral component of BizTalk Server, provides a highly extensible yet
cost-effective implementation of financial messaging using the SWIFT format
and network."

"Through its global alliance with SWIFT, Microsoft and its partners
expand the market for SWIFT and financial services interconnectivity around
the world," said Elie Lasker, head of corporate market, SWIFT. "Microsoft has
a full understanding of the rapidly shifting payments environment, and our
partnership is invaluable in helping to set industry standards and cut costs
and complexity of banking and treasury operations."

BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT natively supports ISO20022 XML schemas and
represents the next generation of payments and cash reporting. Major benefits
include improved operational efficiencies and risk mitigation at banks and
treasuries and lower total cost of ownership. This solution also facilitates
migration of SWIFT processing away from bank legacy technology and enables
implementation of the global messaging standards being defined for the next
generation of payments messaging worldwide.

Microsoft's treasury department is implementing this capability, as well
as piloting the Citi eBAM solution for electronic bank account management
offered through a Citi solution, Citi Direct BE, developed jointly with
Microsoft on Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Launched in 2009, Citi Direct BE
represents a move to next-generation portals and white labeling of treasury
services that leverage Web 2.0 technologies to provide seamless banking
experiences.

"Recent developments in business-to-bank (B2Bank) integration including
eBAM, CGI and next-generation portals represent a quantum leap in technology
designed to support the global treasury management function," said Susan
Feinberg, senior research director at TowerGroup. "We expect that client
demand for these solutions will help drive the technology priorities for
global transaction banks in 2011 and beyond."

Microsoft and its technology partners continue to develop solutions that
are mission-critical and enable the next generation of payments using
ISO20022 XML. Microsoft treasury is a leading corporate treasury that has won
several innovation awards and continues to work with global banks and SWIFT
to generate efficiencies that will benefit the payments industry using
Microsoft technology, such as BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT.

"The biggest benefit of Microsoft's partnership with SWIFT is knowing
where our cash is at any given time," said George Zinn, corporate vice
president and treasurer, Microsoft. "SWIFT allows us to have flexible
relationships with multiple banking partners, enabling us to better measure,
quantify and mitigate risk with a 360-degree holistic view of our exposures
and, if necessary, to move money among banks with relative ease. Visibility
to cash from a single portal is critical to us, and we hear the same from
other large multinationals."

"Microsoft's treasury department links with its banking partners over
SWIFTNet, SWIFT's reliable, security-enhanced messaging platform," said Anita
Prasad, general manager, Treasury Capital Management at Microsoft. This
allows Microsoft to achieve greater daily visibility of its global bank
account transactions, to help ensure operational efficiency and to help
prevent any opportunities for fraud to occur, in line with industry
regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

The implementation provides Microsoft with a centralized view of its bank
accounts, enabling it to receive daily bank account balances and transaction
data electronically from all its banking partners, via their SWIFT
connections, directly into its SAP R/3 Corporate Finance Management. This
centralized resource is designed to reduce the number of systems and data
silos currently in operation, creating a standardized and efficient approach
to Microsoft's financial processes.

Microsoft interfaces with its banks over SWIFTNet using Microsoft BizTalk
Server 2010, Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT and BizTalk Server
Adapter for Web Services Enhancements. This allows end-to-end
straight-through processing from Microsoft's treasury systems to SWIFTNet
connectivity. BizTalk Server also offers interoperability to the desktop
environment, and so the familiar products of Microsoft Office and SharePoint
Server will be used to enter information in a user-friendly format for onward
delivery to SWIFTNet via Microsoft BizTalk Server. The result should be a
significant reduction in the time and cost associated with Microsoft's
banking transactions.

About Microsoft in Financial Services

Microsoft's Financial Services Group provides software that helps
financial firms transform the customer, employee and operations experience so
they can maximize opportunities for increased market share and profitability.
Microsoft software helps empower people and IT staff within financial firms -
and across key focus areas such as advisor platforms, channel renewal,
insurance value chain, enterprise risk management and compliance, and
payments. Through a combination of Microsoft- and partner-provided solutions,
customers enable their employees to turn data into insight, transform ideas
into action and turn change into opportunity. More information about
Microsoft's Financial Services Group can be found at
www.microsoft.com/financialservices.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.

Wendy Grover of Microsoft, +1-425-705-7609, wegrover at microsoft.com; or Chanda Gathani of Metia, +44-7951163615, chanda.gathani at metia.com, for Microsoft / NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx