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Clear2Pay Implements Open Payment Framework for BNP Paribas in Asia Pacific Region

BNP Paribas is one of the six strongest banks in the world with presence in more than 80 countries and more than 200,000 employees worldwide. It offers corporate and investment banking and investment solutions, including payment and cash management services through its local operations across Asia. The regional payment hub project was initiated through the need to have a hub that could interface with BNP Paribas’ channels, a range of internal systems and the various domestic low value and high value payment systems, all with their own local language formats and requirements. This complexity called for a hub style approach, which would facilitate the internal links, as well as a link to the bank’s settlement system and the various clearing systems.

“As we were working on this initial project, whereby supporting local languages was key, it soon became apparent that we could gain additional benefits from the open payment framework approach. Implementing this framework will give us a consolidated view of all payment transactions handled by each country in Asia Pacific. It also allows us to enjoy seamless integration with our current applications such as Connexis or Swiftnet in the future, and be able to offer parsing capabilities to other third-party banks. At the same time, it enables us to prevent disruption to our existing systems and interfaces from the impact of continuous change”, stated Detlef Von-Eiff, chief information officer BNP Paribas Asia Pacific. He continued: “This project is of strategic importance to the group and it will be vital in driving our Asia Pacific cash management business forward in a region which continues to demonstrate a high level of activity and economic growth”.

Michel Akkermans, chairman and CEO of Clear2Pay added: “Regional payment hubs have been widely discussed as they make a lot of sense for strong regional banks that want to compete at a local level. BNP Paribas has the insight to act and invest in a year when business in the financial sector is challenging in Europe. We are honoured to work with a partner with such conviction and are committed to supporting them through both our regional operations in Asia, as well as from Europe. This combination makes us very strong partners with a shared passion: streamlining payments to meet the demands of markets and their customers”.