NACHA News: TowerGroup Says Banks Seeking Comprehensive Technology Solutions for Integration with Corporate Clients

New TowerGroup Research Examines Fast-Evolving Space of 'B2Bank' IntegrationFinancial institutions offering wholesale banking as a line of business to corporations currently face unrelenting pressure from clients to improve their integration technology services.

New research from TowerGroup finds high expectations from clients regarding banking solutions that allow them to select communications protocols, data formats, and security methods to best meet their own requirements and integration capabilities. The integration challenge for large corporations is heightened as they try to manage hundreds, even thousands, of global supply-chain relationships (including banks) using consistent integration tools.

To meet these demands in a cost-effective manner, TowerGroup believes, banks must partner with technology providers offering deep expertise in business-to-bank (B2Bank) integration - defined by TowerGroup as the technology used to manage the connections between the applications running at a bank, and the financial and accounting systems of its corporate or other wholesale clients.

"Banks must demonstrate their commitment to providing corporate customers with robust and flexible integration solutions," said Susan Feinberg, research director of the wholesale banking practice at TowerGroup and author of the research. "With clients expecting higher levels of resiliency and service quality, real-time integration to accounting and treasury systems, and faster implementation of new products and services, banks need to choose the B2Bank solution provider that best aligns with their strategy to meet clients' objectives."

Feinberg is scheduled to lead a session at NACHA Payments 2007 titled, "Service-Oriented Success in Payments: Beyond Accuracy & Time." She will co-present with Lance Hill, general manager, WebMethods Inc. and Brad Stewart, SVP, group product manager, Wells Fargo.