Westpac chooses Logica payments hub

Logica All Payments Solution will help Westpac New Zealand launch new products and services to its 1.2 million customers.

According to Logica, LAPS will deliver a centralised, domestic payments hub to Westpac.

Customer service will be improved as LAPS helps increase automation levels, streamlines payments processing and drives down operational costs. It will also enable the bank to meet the impending Settlement Before Interchange (SBI) mandated initiative in New Zealand to reduce settlement risk.

Greg Byrne, Head of Business Products and Strategy, Westpac New Zealand, said: “Increasing regulation and the SBI initiative meant that we needed a payment services hub to achieve compliance and a scalable system to allow for future growth. We chose Logica because of its payments industry knowledge and understanding of the local environment and the wider APAC region. LAPS’ rich functionality and modern architecture will enable us to better service our customers and remain competitive by bringing new products to market.”

The SBI initiative, due to come into effect this year, provided an opportunity for Westpac New Zealand to replace its existing legacy system and modernise its payments hub. LAPS will enable Westpac New Zealand to take advantage of the new SWIFT-based high volume settlement infrastructure that will support the SBI industry initiative.

Richard Davies, director of APAC for Logica’s Global financial Products Business, said: “The unprecedented financial services growth within Asia Pacific is driving the demand for scalable payments solutions that mitigate risk and deliver ROI. Westpac New Zealand, as a leading bank in the country, is a fantastic addition to our growing roster of APAC clients and demonstrates our commitment and ability to meet regional business requirements. We are delighted that our integrated payments hub stood out from the competition.”

Logica was selected after a competitive tender and the initial software release of LAPS has been installed. Comprehensive inter-bank testing of LAPS is scheduled for the middle of 2011 and the payments hub is expected to go-live in October of this year to ensure all SBI project requirement deadlines are met.