Press Release
Bank of the West and RS2 Software Asia Join the IFX Forum
Forum Members Now Located in 12 Countries
WAKEFIELD, Mass., USA – June 6, 2012 – The Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX; http://www.ifxforum.org) Forum announced today that Bank of the West and RS2 Software Asia (Philippines), Inc. have become members – Bank of the West at the Corporate level and RS2 Software as a Small Business.
The IFX Forum is an international non-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, IFX, which is available at no charge at http://bms.ifxforum.org/.
Based in San Francisco, Bank of the West offers a full range of personal, commercial, wealth management and international banking services through more than 700 retail and commercial banking locations in the United States.
RS2 Software Asia, based in Southeast Asia, develops comprehensive, high-performance and high-availability card management solutions for banks, service providers, retailers and financial organizations.
"I'm very pleased to welcome our two newest members – one a bank, and one an ISV; one in the large corporate category and one in the small business category -- demonstrating the broad appeal of participating in the IFX Forum to further the development and use of the IFX specification," said Richard P. Urban, President of the IFX Forum. "We encourage organizations across the financial services sector of any size, in any location, to join us and help us change the landscape of electronic financial messaging. The value of the specification increases with the expertise and perspective brought by each new contributing member."
"Bank of the West's membership in the IFX Forum will help to ensure that the needs of our customers are well represented in the process to develop standards around messaging," said Dan Nagy, Cash Management Division Executive at Bank of the West. "We are happy to be a part of the process, which will benefit our customers, our bank, and the entire financial services industry."
"As a Card Management Solutions Provider, we are eager to collaborate with other Forum members, working to extend the standard, and helping to promote the adoption of IFX in the region from our base in Southeast Asia," said Reinhold Schaeffter, RS2 President and CEO. "We hope that our experience in the cards sector will prove relevant and valuable to the efforts of the Forum."
About the IFX Forum
Founded in 1997, the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum is an international not-for-profit industry association whose mission is to develop IFX and promote its adoption as an open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, suitable for use by all sectors of the financial services industry. The IFX Forum also promotes interoperability of industry standards by working cooperatively with other standards organizations and consortia.
Forum membership is open to organizations interested in contributing to the development of open financial standards. Forum members include financial institutions, hardware, software and service firms, and related non-profit groups. The IFX Forum is currently organized into the following Working Groups: ATM/POS; Branch Banking Services; Business Banking; Card Management & Servicing, Liaison & Interoperability, and Loans. IFX Forum Working Groups, in concert with an Architecture Committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages for all sectors of the financial services industry. To learn more about IFX Forum standards or the benefits of IFX Forum membership, please visit www.IFXForum.org.