LONDON, December 3 /PRNewswire/ -- VocaLink, the international payments specialists, today announced that it has partnered with BBP AG the leading Swiss SWIFT Service Bureau, to deliver a comprehensive SWIFT connectivity solution to banks and their corporate customers throughout Europe.

The growing SWIFT network is the secure choice of the global banking community for routing payments and this new service, which is an extension of VocaLink's Service Bureau, will provide a viable, low cost, hosted connectivity service to SWIFTNet. The service removes banks' in-house operational costs of managing multiple bank relationships whilst enabling them to benefit from economies of scale. Corporate customers will also benefit by gaining easier access to their chosen payment service provider and banks through a single access point for all of their payments, regardless of the format. This approach allows companies to gain total visibility of their cash positions on accounts across the globe.

The partnership with BBP strengthens VocaLink's core offering to provide its customers with high volume, resilient, reliable payments processing in a cost effective environment. The collaboration will also enable VocaLink to offer greater flexibility for designing efficient migration and payments consolidation strategies for banks, allowing them to comply with SEPA rules and reap the benefits of cost reduction and improved control.

Per Trifunovic, CEO at BBP, comments: BBP operates the world's number one SWIFT Service Bureau and has a solid track record of running faultless outsourced SWIFT services for over 200 customers in more than 30 countries worldwide. Our partnership with VocaLink allows us to deliver comprehensive and first class services to all of the major mainland European markets.

Fred Bar, Managing Director for Euro Services and Channels at VocaLink, comments: By offering SWIFT capabilities and standards with BBP, VocaLink's customers will benefit from a single route to SWIFT. This greatly reduces the operational overhead of managing SWIFT internally by outsourcing to SWIFT certified specialists, enabling banks to focus on their core business. As a result, we are able to fulfil the highest requirements in terms of stability, availability and security at the same time

About VocaLink

VocaLink is a specialist provider of transaction services to banks, their corporate customers and Government departments. It processes domestic and international automated payments and provides ATM switching solutions. On a peak day, the VocaLink automated payment platform processes over 90 million transactions and over half a billion in a month. Its switching platform connects the world's busiest ATM network of over 60,000 ATMs. Its Real-Time Payments platform provides the central infrastructure for the UK Faster Payments service. VocaLink is working with BGC to provide outsourced processing for the majority of Sweden's domestic payments.

Having pioneered electronic payments for over four decades, many of the world's top banks and their corporate customers rely on VocaLink to meet their transaction needs. Its processing services offer banks reach throughout the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and beyond; and are complemented by value-added services that leverage industry expertise and technical capabilities.

Please visit http://www.vocalink.com for more information.

About BBP AG

BBP AG, a subsidiary of Fundtech, Jersey City, USA, is a software house specialized in the integration of interbank applications and has earned an excellent reputation in the banking industry. BBP's most important goals are product reliability and long-term, successful cooperation with clients and partners.

The product range includes the IGTplus (Interbank Gateway) software developed by BBP and encompasses system solutions for the Interbank Applications SWIFT (FIN, FileAct, InterAct), SIC, euroSIC, SECOM, SWX, virt-x and FIX-Protocol as well as integration modules for host connections (APIs) and authentication devices.

In addition BBP operates an Interbank Service Bureau, which provides banks access to SWIFT, SIC, euroSIC, SECOM, virt-x and brokers as well as to value added services for transaction filtering and reconciliation (Corona). With more than 200 customers from over 30 countries and an average above 100'000 SWIFT Messages / day, we are operating the world's number 1 SWIFT Service Bureau.

Please visit http://www.bbp.ch for more information.

SOURCE: VocaLink

CONTACT: Further information: Scott McLean, Hotwire, +44(0)20-7608-2500 orvocalinkuk@hotwirepr.com, Deborah Souter, VocaLink Limited,+44(0)870-920-8651 or deborah.souter@VocaLink.com