Aqua Global Company Overview

Aqua Global was established in September 1983, is headquartered in London and has a regional office in Poland. Over more than 43 years we have become a specialist in financial message management for banks in more than 23 countries, working with retail and wholesale banks, wealth and asset management firms, and fund administration institutions of every size.

The solution is a single, modular proposition called Aquila that provides straight through processing of messages for payments, treasury, securities, trade finance and statement reporting. Unlike other solutions in the market, every module is incorporated into one integrated solution that removes the need for multiple applications. The modules co-exist within a single shared database and are delivered as a complete solution, which allows customers to deploy additional modules quickly and at a pace that suits their own business requirements.

Aquila has off the shelf adapters for many leading core banking systems, and it can also be integrated with other systems and external services, including in house and proprietary ones. Aquila meets all Swift requirements across FIN and ISO 20022, together with local clearing and internal services such as internet and mobile banking, and it does all of this while sitting alongside your existing core banking platform rather than replacing it.

Aquila Product Overview

Aquila consists of the following modules:

– Message Management
– Inward Payments Processing
– Outward Payments Settlement
– Swift gpi and Universal Confirmations
– Manual Transaction Entry
– Account Reconciliations
– Treasury Message Matching
– Incident Management
– Data Definition Layer
– Swift LAU
– ISO 20022 Modules

Aquila Message Management

Message Management is an integrated framework for controlling all electronic messaging across every service a bank uses, and it brings internal systems, third party applications and external messaging services together in a way that simplifies the wider IT architecture. It is a multi entity, multi currency solution offering 24/7 transaction processing and automation that works in harmony with core systems, and Queue Management sits at the centre of it as the main dashboard and point of control for every incoming and outgoing message.

With Aquila, banks can automate and control:

– Receiving inward and outward Swift MT and MX messages
– Managing user profiles and authorities
– Message routing to different departments
– Configuring automated processing such as payments straight through processing
– Managing exceptions
– Providing Swift Standards and Swift gpi compliance
– Comprehensive audit information and control
– Automatic and manual message creation
– Swift message templates
– Duplicate message detection
– Message transformation between MT and MX

Integration Capabilities

– Internal systems: core banking, trading, AML and KYC, e-banking
– External services: Swift, RTGS, local clearing, remittance networks, bespoke formats

Message Standards

Every Swift FIN message standard within Aquila carries an effective date, which allows changes in message structure to be catered for without any software upgrade. Annual Swift message standards updates are soft coded and are typically released at least three months ahead of go live, so your operations team has time to prepare rather than scrambling at the deadline. The result is flexibility, audit and control over message standards and requirements as they continue to evolve.

FIN to ISO 20022 Transition

The migration away from MT for cross border payments and reporting is now well underway, and the pressure has shifted from the initial coexistence period to the richer data requirements that follow it. From 12 June 2027, structured address data becomes mandatory across the network, and for many banks that is a data quality problem rather than a messaging problem, because the information has to be complete and correctly formatted before it ever reaches the message. Swift Case Management follows in November 2027, bringing camt.110 and camt.111 investigation messages into mandatory use and ending in flow translation.

Aquila supports MX adoption either through native ISO 20022 message creation or through transformation between MT and MX, which means banks can choose the path that fits their own architecture and timeline rather than being forced into a single approach.

Inward Payments Processing

Inward Payments Processing controls the inbound straight through processing of payments into the core banking system using the core’s existing APIs. Status codes returned from the API programs are monitored continuously and alerts are generated for any failed bookings, with manual repair functionality available for the items that need human attention. Aquila can also apply fees automatically based on the customer profile and the type of processing involved.

Data Definition Layer

The Data Definition Layer defines the structure of specific messages, whether they follow an industry standard or a customer specific format. Message standards are version dated and stored in database tables, which removes the need for software updates whenever a standard changes. It also supports the import and processing of file types such as XLS, XML and CSV, enabling third party payment submissions to be booked automatically.

Benefits:

– Reduced manual processes, cost and risk
– Improved accuracy
– Improved time cycles
– Enhanced audit and control
– Improved compliance, including Swift gpi and Universal Confirmations

Outward Payments

Outward Payments processing automatically produces outward settlement messages for the bank in the appropriate format, generating fully formatted confirmation and payment messages for transmission to services such as Swift, SEPA, local clearing and faster payments. Settlement messages can cater for real time gross settlement systems including EBA and TARGET2 where required. Trade details can be augmented using Standard Settlement Instructions and tailored to the exact requirements of individual counterparties, and full trade cancellation processing is included as standard.

Manual Transaction Entry

Manual Transaction Entry provides a managed input mechanism that allows every type of non electronic payment to be processed, and it can still be used when the core system is offline, with all transactions processed automatically once the core becomes available again. Entries are keyed by staff in either head office or regional branches and may optionally be routed to head office for checking. The appropriate settlement channel, accounting entries, exchange rates and standard settlement instructions are applied automatically, including validation of bank codes, whether BIC or local clearing, and IBAN numbers. Transaction fees are highly configurable based on the type of transaction and the customer involved.

Aquila Account Reconciliations

The Aquila Account Reconciliations module provides real time reconciliation that improves operational efficiency and reduces risk exposure, and it reconciles items automatically against the information already held within an institution’s internal systems, including:

– Swift securities
– Swift cash
– Internal system formats
– Bespoke formats
– Card formats
– Precious metals

Treasury Message Matching

The Aquila Treasury Message Matching module provides real time matching of all treasury confirmations, allowing institutions to define matching relationships between inbound and outbound treasury trade confirmations so that trade anomalies are detected while there is still time to act on them. Matching rules can be defined for messages across any service required, including Swift, and the module gives clear visibility of matched, unmatched and possible match relationships. Exceptions are highlighted automatically to ensure timely resolution, and notes can be added to transactions to support any future investigation.

Incident Management

Aquila has built in incident reporting that tracks events and actively improves how quickly issues are resolved. The incident management process captures the detail immediately and assigns it to the appropriate people, and the reporting dashboard supports investigation and analysis, corrective action and incident closure with a full audit trail throughout. This same framework underpins Aquila’s automation of camt.110 and camt.111 investigation messages ahead of the Swift Case Management mandate in November 2027.

ISO 20022 Solutions

Adapting internal systems to process ISO 20022 messages can be challenging and costly for most institutions, so Aqua Global offers two routes that simplify it considerably, either an ISO 20022 messaging hub or an MT to MX message transformation tool, depending on how far along the migration path the bank already is.

Key benefits:

– No changes required to existing systems
– Easily adopted
– Minimal training required
– More than 43 years of financial message processing experience
– Swift CBPR+ ready vendor
– Annual Swift message standards updates included in the subscription

Aquila and the Swift Customer Security Programme

Aqua Global provides solutions that address the vulnerabilities detailed in the Swift Customer Security Controls Framework, improving security across the messaging estate and reducing the risk of fraudulent activity reaching the network.

Aquila Swift Local Authentication

As part of the Swift Customer Security Programme, Swift recommends implementing message authentication when exchanging messages between the back office and the Swift gateway, and this is achieved through the Swift Local Authentication module, where Aquila exchanges messages carrying a Local Authentication signature in the trailer of every Swift message. The LAU value depends on two 16 digit keys concatenated to provide a key for the encryption algorithm, using Hash Based Message Authentication Code SHA-256 signatures, with the symmetric key shared by both Aquila and Alliance Access. For incoming Swift messages carrying an LAU in the header, Aquila verifies the LAU, and it creates an LAU on outward messages for the Swift device to verify before submission to the Swift network, which prevents any tampering with Swift exchange files.