SWIFT FIN Conversion Service
Leveraging Amazon Webservices
The SWIFT FIN conversion service combines the power of the Incentage Middleware Suite (IMS) with the possibilities of Amazon Webservices (AWS). Try it!
Overview
SWIFT FIN is a standardised format for financial messages. It has a non-trivial structure and while many applications can consume and produce FIN MT messages, it is still a big challenge for many others.
Incentage has many years of experience with enabling applications for SWIFT FIN by providing an integration layer. Our software is trusted by banks and financial institutions globally.
The conversion service transforms FIN messages into either XML or JSON:
The service is built solely through configuration; no coding is involved. This is possible by using the AWS API Gateway, the AWS Lambda service, and the Incentage Middleware Suite.
The following sections introduce SWIFT, the Incentage Middleware Suite and Amazon Webservices. Then the architecture of the conversion service is explained.
What is SWIFT FIN?
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) provides an international network for financial institutions to send and receive messages about financial transactions.
SWIFT also defines an industry standard for syntax in financial messages: SWIFT FIN (ISO 7775 and ISO 15022. An example of a payment message:
{1:F01PTSBCHSSAXXX0001000001}{2:I103PTSBCHSSXXXXN}{3:{108:10-103-NVR-0033}{121:cc0e4a2e-0473-4574-be3b-de639be5252e}}{4:
:20:10-103-NVR-0033
:13C:/CLSTIME/0945+0100
:23B:SPRI
:26T:K90
:32A:091120EUR15000,11
:33B:AUD16500,00
:36:0,91
:50F:/123456
1/Name of the ordering customer
6/US/Issuer/123456
:52D://CH123456
ORDERING INSTITUTION NAME
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIA
987456
:54A:/C/987654321
SWHQBEBB
:59:/456123
BENEFICIARY CUSTOMER NAME
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIA
:70:/INV/070717, 12345, INVOICE
NUMBERS 24578, 54789,
354789, 545884, 578822
:71A:BEN
:71F:AUD150,00
:72:/REC/INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR
//RECEIVER OF THE MESSAGE
//TO EXECUTE
//THE PAYMENT
//AS PER INSTRUCTION
:77B:/ORDERRES/US//ADDITONAL INFO
//CONTINUATION OF ADDITIONAL INFO
//CONTINUATION
-}
What is the Incentage Middleware Suite?
IMS is a modular rules engine designed for message transformation, validation, and routing, without the need to write code. With a comprehensive set of parsers and builders, a wide range of formats and standards are supported.
Parsers and builders use data dictionaries to fully support the appropriate standards. In addition, open metadata loaders generate metadata from any other source (e.g. Cobol copy books).
The core of IMS is its rule based conversion engine where input messages are structurally transformed, content is modified, and calculations are executed on the message content.
A component is the building block of an IMS solution. It reads data from a medium, such as a database or a message queue, parses the input message into an internal object model, converts the model, builds a textual representation of the output message, and finally writes it to another medium or protocol.
With IMS, the creation of transformation rules is a data oriented task that does not require programming expertise. The Rules Studio visualizes the logic that is applied during the conversion.
Amazon Webservices
Amazon is one of the most popular providers of serverless computing. At the core is AWS Lambda for running functions. AWS also provides a set of managed services that closely integrate with AWS Lambda to build complete applications. Lambda functions can be triggered in response to events such as HTTP requests or changes to data stored in other Amazon Webservices.
All the services used by the application are fully managed: No configuration of servers, no assignment of resources, and no scaling measures need to be implemented. The cost of running the application is fully based on its usage.
SWIFT FIN Conversion Service Architecture
The service is composed of IMS components deployed to AWS as Lambda functions and a REST API served by the AWS API Gateway service.
While the IMS components do the actual work of message validation and conversion, AWS provides the full infrastructure. The service can leverage the benefits of Lambda, such as automatic scaling, no initial infrastructure cost, and fewer required resources for operational management. The API Gateway delivers load balancing, authentication, and throttling.
Develop locally, run in the Cloud
The architecture of IMS components is suited well for use on serverless platforms. They are based on asynchronous messaging. IMS components perform computations on messages that are passed between them. Configuration and mappings are fully separated from the runtime.
This makes it possible to develop and test the integration logic on premise and deploy it to AWS.
Outlook
The power of IMS comes from the possibility to combine components to a message bus. In the course of our research we also showed how to orchestrate components with AWS StepFunctions.
We have compiled more information into a whitepaper. Contact us for a copy.
