AEG Newsletter Third Quarter - 2018 | Issue #3
	“Our focus currently is dedicated toward developing new services and solutions for our clients”		Word from the CEO Over the past three quarters, our teams have been working on security projects and migration to release 7.2 in order to meet the deadlines set by SWIFT. We have been very successful in implementing SWIFT CSP controls at the banks, and we are still signing contracts for CSP compliance. Our focus currently is dedicated toward developing new services and solutions for our clients and on enhancing our products to be compatible with new technologies and addressing the new financial world’s demands. In that regard, we are now developing and piloting a number of new products based on the blockchain technology and real-time tracking of payments being transferred around the world. We will be discussing our new releases, new products and more with our peers and our customers during the upcoming Sibos conference this October. Sibos plays a major role for us as a central channel of communication and exposure outside our region. At Sibos, we get the opportunity to engage with banks from different countries around the world to discuss their demands and the future of the financial community. Dr. Mohamed Sadek – CEO and General Manager Sibos 2018 Meet us at Sibos, Stand C30 Taking place at ICC Sydney, 22-25 October 2018 Sibos is one of the most eminent events as it brings together all leaders of the financial sector worldwide to communicate and collaborate and come up with new resolutions to the latest challenges. The theme for Sibos 2018 is “Enabling the Digital Economy”, which reveals the widespread revolution of the financial sector as banks are adapting to the new realities of the growing digital world. We are pleased to welcome you at Sibos this year in order for us to have the opportunity to introduce you to our new solutions that go hand in hand with these new realities and to further discuss your business needs. We urge you to take the advantage of getting in touch with our team and representatives who will be ready to answer your enquiries and provide tailored solutions that best suit the needs of your business. To book a meeting with our representatives, kindly press here MERC 2018 Middle East Regional Conference took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 24 and 25 September 2018. This event brings together more than 250 industry leaders and financial experts every year from across the Middle East to do business and help shape the future of the region’s financial industry. AEG had the opportunity to participate in this year’s conference. It was very successful and fruitful. We had the chance to meet with our clients from across the region and discuss the latest issues and technologies. We discussed security challenges and new payment solutions. We had the opportunity to inform our clients about gpi and our latest solutions for gpi payment and UETR. It is always a pleasure to meet with our clients and to network with regional peers and prospects for we have a lot to achieve together in the future.
		In This Issue
		01. Sibos 2018
		02. MERC 2018
		03. CSCF New Release
		04. AEG Announcements
		05. Quarter Highlights
	“Sibos theme 2018: Enabling the digital economy” “MERC 2018 was very successful and fruitful”
	CSCF New Release: 19 mandatory controls and 10 advisory controls Quarter Highlights New Contracts Signed ü Misr Iran Development Bank – Egypt: CSP Project ü Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank – Egypt: AEG Notifier ü Erbil Bank for Investment and Finance – Iraq: CSP Project ü National Bank of Bahrain: AEG-SB Connectivity ü Investcorp Bank B.S.C. – Bahrain: CSP Project - Firco Continuity - AEG Trans_Rep ü Trans Iraq Bank – Iraq: AEG Full Hosting Project ü Banque Du Caire – Egypt: CSP Project ü Al Rafidain Bank – Iraq: CSP Vault Project - Firco Continuity ü USB Bank PLC – Cyprus: CSP Project ü Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd. – Cyprus: Merger Project ü BBK – Bahrain:  Centralization Project for Offshore Branches (KW & IN) ü Trust International Islamic Bank – Iraq: AEG SmartClear Project ü Al-Huda Bank – Iraq: AEG SmartClear Project ü BankMed SAL – Lebanon: CSP Project ü Emirates Lebanon Bank – Lebanon: Ekran Solution ü Audi Bank – Lebanon: CSP Project and Migration to SWIFT 7.2 ü Qatar National Bank Alahli S.A.E (QNB Alahli) – Egypt: AEG-MFA Integrator Solution ü Doha Bank – Qatar: Professional Service, Migration to SWIFT 7.2 ü Al Barid Bank – Morocco:  AEG-SB Connectivity New Clients Joined AEG ü Al Khalij Commercial Bank – Qatar:  SWIFT System Care ü Commercial International Bank S.A.E. – Egypt: AEG-SB Connectivity - SWIFT System Care ü Egyptian Arab Land Bank – Egypt: AEG-SB Connectivity - SWIFT System Care - CSP Project ü Housing and Development Bank – Egypt: SWIFT System Care ü Financial Brokerage Group (FBG) – Egypt: SWIFT System Care   ü First Energy Bank – Bahrain: AEG-SB Connectivity - CSP Project Consultancy ü Trust Bank Algeria: SmartFT - SmartDR - AEG-SB - SWIFT System Care ü Asia Al Iraq Islamic Bank for Finance and Investment – Iraq: AEG-SB Connectivity - SWIFT System Care ü Al Mustachar Bank – Iraq: AEG-SB Connectivity - SWIFT System Care ü Al Rajih Islamic Bank for Finance and Investment – Iraq: AEG-SB Connectivity - SWIFT System Care ü Attijariwafa Bank – Morocco: Professional Services (DR Failover Exercise)		CSCF New Release Following the Customer Security Program and the new standards set by SWIFT for compliance, AEG is providing end-to-end solutions to meet the CSP controls and raise the level of security. This, in turn, allows banks and financial institutions to operate more securely in the digital world, and hence, contributes to enabling the digital economy by providing a more secure digital environment. When SWIFT first released the Customer Security Controls Framework (CSCF), it included 16 mandatory and 11 advisory security controls that act as a security standard for all SWIFT users. SWIFT has published the new CSCF v2019 that includes 19 mandatory controls and 10 advisory controls. Three advisory controls, 2.6A, 2.7A and 5.4A, have been elevated to mandatory and two new advisory controls have been introduced to address virtualization platform protection and SWIFT-related applications hardening. All SWIFT users must attest against the mandatory controls of this new version by the end of 2019. In the meantime, users must attest their compliance against the current set of controls no later than the end of 2018, dependent on the expiry date of their current attestation. AEG is assisting its clients with all their enquiries and providing them with all the support they need for compliance and attestation. For more info, kindly contact our Support team AEG Announcements LAU and AST Applications Information security, including files and messages security, is one of the most urgent requirements today. We address this need through developing new solutions and applications. Our development team has been working on applications to answer challenges related to secure file transfer and secure file integrity, and hence developed AST Application and LAU Application. AST (Advanced Secure Transfer) is an application that transfers messages securely from one node to another. It addresses the challenges of file transfer in terms of logging and traceability, and in terms of FTP protocols and reachability. It can work in batch mode, or for more security, it can work with MQ server and SOAP and has the capability to integrate securely with back office applications and SWIFT interface systems. It complies with SWIFT CSP controls and the best practices of the industry. Moreover, if the BO application does not have the capability to manage LAU, AST handles it in addition to its core functions. LAU Application is a solution that answers the challenge of authenticating and securing MT message between SWIFT and Back Office applications. It is quick to implement and maintain, and it requires minimum changes on the level of the BO application. Not only is it a means to secure file integrity, but it also covers compliance controls of SWIFT CSP. GPI and UETR Applications GPI is the new standard in global payments introduced by SWIFT that provides transaction tracking over SWIFT network. It allows banks to send and receive funds globally in a quick and secure manner to anyone, anywhere in the world, while providing full monitoring and tracking of the payments at any given time. Moreover, SWIFT has introduced a new standard to its MT messages called UETR (Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference) – a new field to added to the transaction messages. SWIFT will be mandating UETR field tag starting November 2018. It is hence foreseen due to business demands that all banks should be able to support UETR and GPI by then. As it is the habit of always providing the latest technologies, AEG has developed applications for UETR and GPI to meet SWIFT’s new standards. These applications will enable banks to follow the rapid change taking place in the world of payments and transactions. GPI-Pro is an application that is basically intended to update and read SWIFT’s GPI directory, create and track payment messages, and integrate with core banking system via webservices. UETR Application is responsible for the generation of UETR code for MT messages, passing the field 121 to the core banking or remove it for legacy compatibility, and appending the saved UETR from the incoming message and passing it to the outgoing message based on the related reference. AEG is ready as always to provide the financial sector with state-of-the-art solutions and latest technologies allowing its clients to stay in touch with the latest trends of the financial community. New Market Expansion Starting January 2019, AEG will extend its market reach to Malta and Greece. When Cyprus branch was first established in 2009, it was intended to be our gate to the European market in addition to acting as a prime site and DR site. After all these years of successful projects and interventions in the local market of Cyprus serving tier 1 banks, AEG is taking it now to the next level through market expansion to neighbor countries starting 2019. With time, AEG will be able to support more and more countries in Europe and eventually cover the whole continent.
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