Banks complete DD pilot

VocaLink has successfully completed a first SEPA Direct Debit pilot with participation from ABN, BAWAG, The Royal Bank of Scotland and a number of their corporate customers, reports Banking Tech.

With less than 200 working days until the SDD go-live date of 1 November 2009, banks are under pressure to fully comply with both SDD and PSD regulations, often requiring heavy investments of capital and time.

At the same time, banks are looking for ways to stir customer interest in an SDD proposition which will be required to compete with strong local direct debit variants, at least in the short term.

The banking and finance sector accounts for one in 10 IT jobs available. This includes e-commerce managers, Web and Java developers and data network engineers, writes AsiaOne Digital.

This is according to the Hudson Report, a quarterly survey of employer hiring expectations by international recruitment firm Hudson.

Much of this demand for IT specialists in the sector is driven by banks' offshore operations, with financial institutions increasingly relocating functions to Singapore.

Bangalore-based Iteamic has selected IronPort Systems' Mail Gateway Appliance and Web Security Appliance for its e-mail and Web-based requirements, states Express Computer Online.

The software services company services start-ups, small and mid-sized companies with its primary service lines being product development and application management services for the banking, finance, security and insurance sector.

Iteamic selected the security application as its IT systems team has spent the past year sorting through several thousand e-mail messages every week to separate the company and its clients' e-mail from spam.