Ares signs SWIFT contract with Taiwan's KGI Bank (Originally Mega Bank)

Ares International Corp. recently signed a contract with Taiwan's KGI International Commercial Bank for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) project of its branches in Canada and Malaysia, with the project to be completed before year-end.

Ares has been a partner of SWIFT for years and has abundant best practices in related areas. Meanwhile, KGI Bank has worked with Ares in the past two years and is pleased with the performance of Ares. Therefore, the bank is working with Ares again for the new project.

ARES has helped KGI's branches in Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Panama, Manila, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Chicago and the Netherlands to connect to the SWIFT host of KGI in Taiwan.

This year, Ares will assist KGI to move the SWIFT license of its Canada branch to its SWIFT host in Taiwan while its Labuan branch in Malaysia will see its newly-applied SWIFT bank code installed in the existing SWIFT host in Taiwan. This will significantly reduce operational expenses and provide a more complete operational environment and support for KGI's overseas branches.

With centralized resource management, KGI can reduce its operational costs and does not have to worry about temporary lack of professional staff in the overseas branches. Moreover, there will be no system modification issue when SWIFT versions are updated or changed. As a result, the overseas branches can focus on local operations while its information system will be run by the headquarter office of KGI.

KGI Bank Co., Ltd. was the remaining entity of the merger of International Commercial Bank of China and Chiao Tung Bank. The bank now has 108 branches in Taiwan, 19 in overseas regions and three representative offices. The number of its overseas offices totals 31, including subsidiaries and branches in Thailand and Canada.

About Ares promoting SWIFT

SWIFT is a co-operative established by and for the global financial industry in 1973. SWIFT provides secure and standard financial messaging services and interfaces for 8,141 financial institutions in 207 countries.

Ares has strived for the SWIFT-related implementations and all the SWIFT standards while cooperating with SWIFT closely. In 2002, Ares became SWIFT Business Partner and was certificated as the SWIFT Service Partner in 2003. Ares provides Taiwan-based financial institutions with professional consultant services, including installing SWIFT products, planning and implementing hobbing for overseas branches, disaster backup, and so on. With abundant SWIFT experiences and professional knowledge, Ares has developed solutions including SWIFT messages integration, fund automation solution and global cash reporting solution. Ares has assisted over 80% of banks in Taiwan in implementing, maintaining and upgrading SWIFT infrastructure. In 2008, Ares became the only SWIFT Regional Partner in Taiwan and its professional service is proven to be SWIFT Ready.

Introduction of Ares

Ares International Corp. is the first Taiwan-based software company to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE). Established for 30 years, Ares is a professional management information system software provider, with professional areas in product technical R&D and system integration. Ares provides products as well as total solutions for e-enterprise, with major service fields mainly for the financial, government and enterprise segments. Ares has passed the CMMI L3 certification, has outstanding project integration ability, quality guarantee ability, development and maintenance ability and the most complete professional consultancy team.