What is EBICS 3.0?
For many organizations in Europe, the Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard (EBICS) is gaining traction as the preferred choice over the FTAM Protocol or other proprietary bank-specific e-Banking products. EBICS is the DK-standard for secure data transmission between a customer and a financial institution. Originally launched in 2010, EBICS replaced the old network for exchange files between banks and companies.
Importance of EBICS 3.0
EBICS seeks to accelerate the adoption of this standard at international level, allowing banks to use EBICS as a single communication standard to exchange messages securely. The development is facilitated by the introduction of the new EBICS 3.0 protocol on November 27, 2018 which is a harmonized version of the protocol.
EBICS also has a “multi-bank capability”, which is generally suitable for corporate clients to address any bank that supports the standard. Today, EBICS standards are widely used in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. EBICS standard supports SEPA and can be used as the secure communication channel to initiate SEPA Direct Debits and SEPA Credit Transfers using the Internet. In Germany, EBICS 3.0 will become mandatory from 22 November 2021.
Benefits:
- A common, open standard interface for all corporates and banks to connect in France, Germany and Switzerland
- Highest security of messages using ‘Electronic Distributed Signatures’ (EDS), using encryption at transport and application level
- Single access for all business transactions, including direct debits, credit transfers, cash management, account statements, etc.
- Flexibility to support various file formats such as XML, HTTPS, TLS and ZIP
Virtusa EBICS Client 3.0 for SAP solution enables highly secure, standardized data transfer between financial institutions and corporate clients with EBICS 3.0 or earlier protocol versions.
The solution is fully integrated into existing SAP infrastructure and processes. EBICS communication is triggered directly from the SAP processes – a “real” straight-through processing without media breaks. Transfer of the payment media is possible directly from a payment run or via manual upload.
Virtusa EBICS client is also fully integrated into the release process of SAP Bank Communication Management (BCM) and enables automatic EBICS data transfer after the final BCM payment release. Account statements or status messages can be processed manually or via job-controlled direct pickup.
Virtusa’s EBICS Client 3.0 for SAP solution uses its own SAP authorization objects and sample roles enabling efficient monitoring of the payment transactions.
- Supporting the new EBICS 3.0 format and the older versions
- Secure, standardized and automated communication with the EBICS network
- Key and certificate management
- Multibank capability out of the SAP system
- Bank statement processing
- Status message processing
- Compatible with SAP BCM
- Supports the use of the Distributed Electronic Signature (VEU) method