The Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX; http://www.ifxforum.org) Forum today announced two new members: the BPAY Group and the Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), both at the Small Business level.

The IFX Forum is an international non-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, IFX, which is available at no charge at http://bms.ifxforum.org/.

BPAY is an Australian payments scheme linking individuals and businesses to more than 160 banks and credit unions, and it processes more than 26 million bill payments each month.

IDRBT is a banking technology research institute in India, established to provide operational service support in information technology to banks and financial institutions. IDBRT also offers a range of academic programs, and consults in banking technology and related areas.

"These new members -an academic/research institution and a service provider - underscore the value of IFX and of Forum participation across a wide variety of organizations and geographies," said Richard P. Urban, President of the IFX Forum. "We look forward to their contributions to the IFX specification and to our important activities with other international standards groups, as we continue to work to improve the global landscape of electronic financial messaging."

"The IFX Forum provides the BPAY Group with an excellent opportunity to keep at the forefront of global developments in the use of data standards, especially important given the imminent introduction of the New Payments Platform in Australia, where data transmission will be in accordance with the global ISO 20022 standards," said Keith Brown, General Manager, Business Services for the BPAY Group. "Our involvement with the IFX Forum, a submitting organization to ISO 20022, will enable us to access global best practice in its application."

"IDRBT is eager to join in and contribute to the IFX Forum's ongoing work with ISO 20022 and other international standards organizations," said Patrick Kishore, Chief Operating Officer at IDRBT. "We also look forward to applying our significant experience in the area of service-oriented architecture to the efforts of the Forum's SOA Working Group."

About the IFX Forum

Founded in 1997, the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum is an international not-for-profit industry association whose mission is to develop IFX and promote its adoption as an open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, suitable for use by all sectors of the financial services industry. The IFX Forum also promotes interoperability of industry standards by working cooperatively with other standards organizations and consortia.

Forum membership is open to organizations interested in contributing to the development of open financial standards. Forum members include financial institutions, hardware, software and service firms, and related non-profit groups. The IFX Forum is currently organized into the following Working Groups: ATM/POS; Branch Banking Services; Business Banking; Card Management & Servicing, Liaison & Interoperability, Loans, and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). IFX Forum Working Groups, in concert with an Architecture Committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages for all sectors of the financial services industry. To learn more about IFX Forum standards or the benefits of IFX Forum membership, please visit www.IFXForum.org.

Virtual, Inc.
Judith Vanderkay, 781-876-6208
jvanderkay@virtualmgmt.com