Rabobank extends collaboration with Finastra for its next-generation payments hub

By Joy Dumasia

Finastra announced that Rabobank, an international financial services group headquartered in the Netherlands, has selected the latest version of Fusion Global PAYPlus for increased efficiency and payment innovation. Finastra’s payments hub will also help the bank migrate to the new ISO 20022 payments standard, due to go live in the eurozone for SWIFT messages in November 2022. 

With support from Finastra, Rabobank was recently awarded for achieving a straight-through processing (STP) rate for SWIFT MT103 and MT202 payment messages of over 99 percent for the last five years by one of its correspondent banking partners. Upgrading Finastra’s solution will enable the bank to continue processing cross-border (high value) payments effectively while benefiting from higher quality data and reduced errors and delays. 

“One of the most important requirements when selecting Fusion Global PAYPlus as the solution for our cross border (high value) payment processing was to increase our STP rate,” Patrick Kipping, Area Lead Transaction Processing at Rabobank, said. “This award is a recognition that we have succeeded in this together with Finastra. We are convinced that in close cooperation with Finastra, we can increase our STP rate even further in the years to come with the migration to ISO 20022.” 

Fusion Global PAYplus provides an incremental approach towards ISO 20022 migration. The solution supports MT to MX processing, enabling conversion between SWIFT’s MT messaging and XML-based message formats. The bank can, therefore, gradually switch to a fully ISO 20022 compliant model to minimize disruption. 

“Our global payments hub has helped Rabobank process its cross-border transactions quickly and efficiently for many years,” Tal Weiser, Managing Director Sales, Global Services Payments at Finastra, said. “It is designed to support ongoing innovation and adaptation to new industry demands. Now that the ISO 20022 mandate is fast approaching, the upgrade will drive compliance and future-proof the bank’s payments processing. We are pleased to extend our support to Rabobank as it continues on its transformation journey.”  

Recently, IBS Intelligence reported that Finastra announced a strategic partnership with ITC Infotech to deliver Finastra’s Fusion Kondor cloud-based Treasury as a Service solution to its growing customer base in Europe. Customers will benefit from increased automation of treasury services, an evergreen system that keeps pace with regulatory change, and rapid time to go live for new features and functionalities.