Designed to remove the in-house operational cost of managing multiple bank relationships, it enables banks to consolidate multiple accounts through a single standardised platform whilst benefiting from economies of scale. Corporate customers will also benefit, by gaining easier access to their chosen payment service provider and banks through this single access point for all of their payments, regardless of the format.
The partnership strengthens VocaLink’s core offering in the UK to provide its customers with high volume, reliable payments processing in a cost effective environment. It builds upon VocaLink’s established relationship with SMA, having worked on a number of business and technical Swift projects over the last three years. The collaboration will enable VocaLink to offer flexibility for designing migration and payments consolidation strategies for UK banks, allowing them to reap the benefits of cost reduction and improved control.
Simon Murby, MD of SMA Financial, said: The partnership will ensure VocaLink’s customers can concentrate on running their core business safe in the knowledge that all of their payments needs will be managed by the two industry experts in financial messaging. As VocaLink’s Bureau of choice for the UK market, it reinforces SMA’s position as the leading provider of outsourced Swift connectivity and related services.
Fred Bar, MD of Euro services at VocaLink, said: By outsourcing to payments and connectivity specialists, operational overheads are greatly reduced and banks and corporates are able to streamline their payments, increase straight-through processing (STP) and reduce operational risk. As a result, we are able to fulfil the highest requirements in terms of stability, availability and security at the same time.
