London – June 23 2005 - Reference data provider CB.Net and SWIFT Gold accredited Software solution provider, ACE Software Solutions (ACE) are now providing a joint IBAN solution for financial institutions.

The solution is a direct response to meet the current demands of correspondent banks in the Eurozone and initiatives including EBA, STEP2 and TARGET2. By combining ACE’s robust software and CB.Net’s accurate international payments reference data, a product is now available to detect, normalise, validate and cross-check IBAN information against up-to-date BICs, National Codes and all IBANs in the creation of MT103 message types.

In addition, as a rule-driven message repair module, this IBAN solution allows for any type of customer-specific rule to be written using either, all the data extracted from the IBAN, or all the data retrieved (via IBAN processing) from the reference data files. For example, rules exist to allow the enrichment of a payment message in order to create a straight through message MT103+ instead of the more costly MT103.

Calling on CB.Net’s reference data – also available as BankSearchPlus* – ACE’s technology enhances MT103s to comply successfully with even the most stringent of STP guidelines.

Al Danino, Commercial Director at ACE said, “We know that if incorrect IBANs and BICs are used, the ordering client can face higher charges or incorrect payments. The beneficiary on the other hand can face delays or worse still, non payment. Our combined solution aims to mitigate against these risks”

Ian Dunning, Managing Director at CB.Net, said, “We believe that this joint solution to the problems financial institutions are facing today with the use of IBANs will be received well in the market. Together, we are offering a comprehensive and useful tool in the creation of MT103s and in a number of delivery formats.”

Intelligent message repair is a key feature of the STP Toolkit™, it is in fact an STP Enabler, the key to achieving significantly improved STP rates. Some of the key benefits of STP Toolkit™ include:

ROI < 6 months - offers the ability to gain substantial returns on investment by high-level of cost savings, revenue generation and processing efficiency.

Cut your exception processing costs - by enhancing your ability to process and automatically repair messages.

Improved levels of service - you can provide an improved service to your clients (e.g. you can accept messages in their formats rather than dictate to them how they should send messages to you).

Increase the levels of business you can handle - your message processing capabilities will increase allowing you to handle more business.

Better management of "Charge-backs" - gives you the optional capability to identify "worse offenders" and charge them accordingly or you can educate them.

Improve knowledge retention – the solution maintains details of the specific messaging problems encountered and where these problems originate.

SMPG Compliance: STP Toolkit™ offers full compliance to the SMPG Compliance requirements for 25 countries.

Plug and Play Functionality: ACE product modules allow for a low lead-time in deployment.

STP Toolkit™ will deploy the data in BankSearchPlus™ directly into the back office system by using it’s advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence technologies to streamline the data flows into the financial institution’s Back office systems.

ACE Software Solutions is a world leader in message and data content-based STP solutions. ACE’s solutions enable financial organizations to leverage ACE’s proven expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing and to successfully tackle every aspect of financial message processing right from Message Enhancement and Repair to Message Traffic Analysis and AML. ACE has offices in London, New Jersey, and Bombay. - www.acesw.com

ACE contact: Stephen Hughes shughes@acesw.com

CB.Net is a data provider dedicated to the delivery of reference data solutions to the international payments community. Established in June 2000 by a group of bankers and IT professionals. London-based CB.Net recognises the importance of reliable reference data in being a major contributor to cost savings and greater efficiency in international payments and compliance requirements.

STP = BIC + Local Code (IBAN) + SSI = BankSearchPlus

*CB.Net’s flagship product, BankSearchPlus, is the definitive international payments directory, delivering critical operational data in one source – both as a web based query tool and as a data feed – directly into back office systems. BankSearchPlus contains over 85,000 Standard Settlement Instructions (SSIs) linked to 8,500 BICs and national bank sort codes for over 70 countries. Other BankSearchPlus components include IBAN2BIC, which validates and links IBANs to the issuing banks; and BIChistory.

The strategic focus of CB.Net is to develop products and solutions for the international payments industry which are innovative, operationally useful, and easy to implement. CB.Net has an impressive portfolio of clients in over 30 countries, including leading bank groups. CB.Net subscription renewal rate is 98% showing that services are meeting requirements.