SunGard (http://www.sungard.com) today announced that FirstRand Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary of FirstRand Limited which is one of South Africa's largest financial services groups, has expanded its relationship with SunGard to manage its transaction processing across the enterprise. FirstRand Bank, which currently uses SunGard's MINT SWIFTNet solution, will implement additional components of MINT SWIFTNet solutions, integrated with SunGard's enterprise matching and reconciliation and exception management solution, intelliSUITE to achieve a holistic approach to transaction management.
FirstRand Bank will build upon its implementation of MINT SWIFTNet for FileAct, currently used for bulk messaging, by implementing additional SWIFTNet solutions that span multiple services for a cohesive SWIFTNet operation. The bank will pilot the SWIFTNet Phase 2 migration process using MINT SWIFTNet solutions. The implementation of intelliSUITE will consolidate the automation of reconciliation and exception management for cash, securities, confirmations, and system to system messages to a single and integrated platform, across the bank's numerous business units. Rules-based technology helps ensure that the bank's best practices are implemented in the transaction management process, to help improve real-time control of operations and reduce settlement risk.
Rob Green, head of payments, FirstRand Banking Group Treasury, commented, "By choosing SunGard, which can supply both messaging and transaction processing solutions in an integrated manner across our lines of business, we are confident that the bank will achieve improved STP while lowering operational risk and the cost of ownership with a single platform. "
Tom King, president of SunGard's STeP business unit, commented, "We have worked closely with FirstRand Bank to understand the scope of its business and have produced a business model that supports an enterprise-wide transaction management solution for the group. By consolidating operations to a standard process on a single platform, SunGard STeP will help FirstRand Bank improve operational efficiencies while helping reduce operational, financial, and vendor risk."
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FirstRand Bank is one of the 'big 4' commercial and investment banking group's in South Africa. It's parent, FirstRand Limited, is listed in the top 10 companies on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange and has a market capitalisation of R1 billion.
FirstRand Bank employs 29,350 people and has a retail franchise footprint of 679 branches, 4131 ATM's,and in excess of 50,000 card acceptance devices.
SteP
SunGard STeP provides a suite of business solutions that helps deliver Straight-Through Enterprise Processing (STeP) to banks, investment managers, broker dealers, and corporations. STeP connects customers' internal applications and business processes with external services and networks while managing the operations around their business processes. STeP solutions include MINT for SWIFTNet and financial messaging integration; intelliSUITE for reconciliation, exception processing, transaction research, and liquidity management; and Trade Management for post trade automation.
SunGard
With annual revenues of $4 billion, SunGard is a global leader in software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also helps information-dependent enterprises of all types to ensure the continuity of their business. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world's 50 largest financial services companies. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
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