Federal Reserve to Use Bottomline's EDI Software
Bottomline Technologies (Portsmouth, NH) has thrown its hat in the ring to help financial institutions address the federal government's Electronic Funds Transfer '99 initiative. The initiative dictates that by January 1, 1999, all federal payments must be converted to electronic funds transfers. A similar rule passed by the National Automated Clearing House Association says that all banks must be EDI-capable by September of this year. To help financial institutions speed their compliance with these mandates, Bottomline's Financial EDI translation software is being distributed by the Federal Reserve to 12,000 financial institutions connected to its FedLine electronic payment transaction connection. The PC-based software will download, translate and store EDI information from incoming payment files, which can be communicated to bank customers as a hard copy report, e-mail or fax within two business days. This agreement will allow institutions to "respond to customer needs in advance of the government's EFT '99 initiative," said Robert Allen, VP of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Missouri, and Chair of the Federal Reserve's EDI Work Group. The Fed will sponsor regional training seminars to familiarize institutions with the initiative in Q3 '98; dates and locations will be available by September.