TynTec Launches Secure SMS Solution For Financial Sector

17th August 2006: Enterprise-quality SMS operator TynTec today announces the launch of a new solution to guarantee secure, scalable and reliable SMS delivery for the financial services sector. The new Banking Grade SMS solution uses TynTec's unique technology infrastructure to enable banks to send customers' information via SMS reliably, quickly and securely. This means financial institutions are now able to distribute account information such as balance statements, overdraft alerts, transaction notifications and authentication information for services such as online banking through a secure and reliable mobile interface.

The deployment of SMS in the financial services industry has been hampered by the limitations of the technology. 'Ordinary' SMS as provided by general purpose SMS resellers or operators can often be delayed or even lost en route to the customer - an unacceptable level of unreliability in a critical area such as personal financial information. TynTec's ability to handle massive amounts of SMS traffic whilst still guaranteeing timely delivery promotes SMS to a banking grade tool for the first time, opening up a range of new consumer interface opportunities for banks as well as potential new revenue sources. Whether providing personal financial information via SMS or time-sensitive PINs or TANs for authorisation purposes, TynTec's ability to reach directly the customer's personal device within seconds makes it a hugely powerful interaction channel.

The Banking Grade SMS solution guarantees the delivery of every SMS within 15 seconds to any one of 340 networks in 140 countries worldwide. TynTec is able to offer financial institutions adherence to strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on high-volume SMS delivery through its deep-level (SS7) access to the global telecoms infrastructure and its proprietary SMS Centre. The solution can also quickly and seamlessly integrate with a range of diverse back-end systems such as CRM and ERP, meaning that it can work alongside bank's existing systems with minimal integration hassle. The Banking Grade SMS Solution guarantees complete security for each message from start to finish through a direct VPN connection to the data centre and it also tracks all messages to ensure a comprehensive audit trail of communications.

Markus Kramer, Head of Corporate Solutions, said: "Mobile enabled banking has been on the cards for some time but its wider roll out has always been hampered by concerns over the security and reliability of wireless technologies. This situation has now changed - TynTec's Banking Grade SMS product brings an unprecedented level of reliability and speed to SMS communications, enabling banks to offer a real time, two-way interaction channel to their consumers for the first time.

"The introduction of value added services such as wireless banking is no longer an optional extra for banks - consumers expect to see this sort of service from their providers and they expect it to be secure, quick and effective. SMS is the ideal tool for this sort of project - consumers know how to use it and compatible devices are near ubiquitous - now that its also quick, safe and reliable then there's no reason for the financial services community to hold back any further."

TynTec already provides enterprise quality SMS solutions for a number of global companies including BA, TNT, Unilever and Accenture. The Banking Grade SMS Solution will be available from 15th of July.