SWIFT SWIFTNet FIN and FileAct

World First decided to electronically connect with payment counter parties in 2008, choosing SWIFT Net with FIN messages to acheive this aim - I was the lead (and for most of it's life the only) developer on this project.

We elected to use a simpler sftp file exchange solution (using a shared key) rather than a WebSphere MQ Queue based on cost and support considerations and connected via a bureau (SMA, now BottomLine)

During my time I managed the onboarding (User Acceptance and goLive!) process with 2 banking counter parties.

I am familar with these message types: MT101, MT103, MT900, MT942, MT940 and Network ACKs and NAKs and have some experience with FileAct too.

The software:

I produced a PHP Class to process incomming SWIFT messages, it decoded and stored blocks 1,2 and 3 and passed Block4 to custom handlers based on the message type, allowing it to be easily extended to include message types in the future and to handle different counter parties implementation of certain aspects of (say) the repeating groups of the MT94* messages.

As at August 2011 the complete solution exists almost unchanged since 2009 and processes 600 files per day with an average of 3.5 msg/file (2100 msgs/day).

99.89% of outbound payments are sent electronically as MT101s.

SMA/BottomLine has a case study in PDF format here.