BNY Mellon, Microsoft Azure Boost Cloud-Based Wire Payments

BNY Mellon is moving its wire payments infrastructure to Microsoft Azure and is also developing a treasury cash management relationship with Microsoft Treasury built on the Azure cloud payment system, according to a press release on Tuesday (Oct. 12).

This latest collaboration builds on the bank’s existing relationship with Microsoft, both as a client and service provider. Partnering with Microsoft for wire payments will also help BNY Mellon further advance the resiliency of its payments platform. The bank’s cloud migration is its most recent move to help further the digitization of the payments sector.

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Wire payments form the backbone of payments worldwide, giving financial institutions the ability to transfer trillions around the globe every day. The infrastructure previously depended on physical processing centers, which is still its foundation, but the increased activity during the worldwide pandemic turned the spotlight on how best to solidify the infrastructure.

“The events of 2020 demonstrated the need to accelerate digitization and helping clients in their digital journey. BNY Mellon’s cloud-enabled capabilities are critical to the strategy,” Saket Sharma, chief information and digital officer for BNY Mellon Treasury Services. “Working closely with Microsoft Azure and our collaborators in Microsoft Treasury, this is further testament to our ambitions to digitize the entire payments industry, making it faster, more transparent and more resilient for all market participants.”

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Cloud-based payments can’t take the place of on-premise wires. However, their importance is recognized when it comes to expansion during market volatility. Cloud-based wires can also “act as a pressure valve” if the processing center is disrupted for any reason. Further, using cloud-based infrastructure can quickly boost bandwidth.

“BNY Mellon’s successful migration of Microsoft Treasury’s wire payments into the cloud, using Microsoft Azure, is an exciting milestone in the modernization of payments,” said Bill Borden, corporate vice president of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft Corp.

Borden added that both firms bring complementary proficiencies in cloud, engineering and payments and can “bring innovation to the broader financial services market, with the scalability, reliability and security it needs.”

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