- SWIFT awards the first SWIFTReady Application for Corporates - Cash Management running on the SMA Service Bureau & online application platform

LONDON, 21st September, 2010 – SMA Financial (www.sma.co.uk), the SWIFT Regional Partner for UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands today announced that their SMA Alembic product had been awarded the SWIFTReady Cash Management Label for 2010.  This is the first cash management product on the market to pass the rigorous tests and assessments that SWIFT applies to any labelled product which runs on the Service Bureau and is based on an online, hosted platform.  SMA Alembic was released in December 2009 and has already been taken up by a number of SMA Financial corporate clients. 

SMA Alembic is designed to enable corporate treasurers to optimise cash and liquidity management.  The product uses next-generation SWIFT technology, based on ISO20022 standards, to automate and streamline payments, which in turn reduces the complexity of international cash management payment processing and ensures efficient use of working capital.  National Grid and Johnson Matthey are two of the many SMA Financial users who have implemented the product.

Bernard De Groeve, Senior Business Development Manager, Partner Management, SWIFT, comments, “Financial institutions and corporates can rely on SWIFT labelled products with the knowledge that they are based on industry standards, use the latest technology and importantly integrate with the SWIFT network. As part of our due diligence we also speak to current users of the product to further ensure the implementations are properly run and positively endorsed.  We congratulate SMA Financial on achieving this latest endorsement for their Alembic product.”

SMA Alembic provides the following key benefits:

- Reduce the complexity of international cash management, deliver greater efficiency and optimise liquidity management;

- Automate and streamline payments preparation using straightforward workflows;

- Gain greater visibility of multi-bank cash positions from a single consolidated view

- Eliminate multiple connections to proprietary electronic banking services;

- Make use of standardised counterparty data;

- Process bulk payments clearing using SWIFT's standardised and secure solution;

- Utilise FileAct, a highly resilient and reliable way to transfer large volumes of data in bulk i.e. payment information, documents, images, etc.; and

- Take advantage of latest XML based standards

Simon Murby, Managing Director, SMA Financial concluded, “SWIFT labels are recognized across the world as more than a seal of approval.  We are extremely pleased that our product has passed the rigorous SWIFT testing to achieve their endorsement.  More than ever our corporate clients need to manage their cash and liquidity effectively and efficiently to realise tangible benefits for their businesses.  Alembic offers the perfect solution for treasury teams, large or small.”