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| Alaric’s Authentic System Links Barbados Credit Union to Caribbean Integrated Financial Services Network in Impressive Time Alaric International announces that Barbados Public Workers' Co-operative Credit Union Ltd (BPWCCUL), the largest island credit union, has gone live with the first phase of a major programme to provide enhanced customer debit card facilities. Alaric's Authentic EFT authorisation and switching system was implemented by BPWCCUL to provide an online interface into the National Debit Switch, known as the CarIFS (Caribbean Integrated Financial Services) network, run by the islands' major banks. CarIFS was initially instituted to facilitate debit switching capability among the commercial banks on the island, but has recently invited the Credit Unions to join the network. The entire project phase, from functional specification in September to certification and completion of the live production system in November, took just two months. The physical implementation and testing was achieved in under four weeks. Following a rigorous selection process, Authentic was chosen to link BPWCCUL's ATMs into the CarIFS network and support the authorisation and switching of both issuing and acquiring transactions, interfacing to BPWCCUL's Symitar host system. This successful initial implementation marks the first part of a three-phase project which will also see further credit unions on the island being given access to the CarIFS ATM network. Prism Services, project Managers for CarIFS, was full of praise for the ease and professionalism with which the project was completed, and CarIFS commended BPWCCUL on their choice of Alaric International. PRISM Services, which has gone through this exercise numerous times before with different service providers, remarked that "Alaric's personnel were proactive, thorough, and demonstrated due diligence in ensuring that each step was correct on the first try, and that the project was completed on time. Alaric's personnel queried all uncertainties in the project plan and scripts beforehand, so that once a certification window was provided, all systems were go." The BPWCCUL is the largest of the 37 credit unions on the island, with assets of over $240m. A not-for-profit financial co-operative which provides savings & investment products, loans and mortgages to its members, the credit union also offers internet banking facilities in addition to its enhanced debit services. Alaric's Authentic is a modern EFT authorization and routing system for issuers and acquirers of credit, debit, charge and prepaid cards. Authentic addresses the needs of banks, retailers and processors. Written entirely in Java and using open, relational databases, Authentic is truly platform independent. Authentic is designed with future business needs in mind, with an emphasis on user configuration rather than programming. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Computing News :: home page |