| About FSTC |
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| Paperless automated check exchange. Accurate voice authentication technology. Secure Internet messaging between banks.
Ten years ago, these were dreams of technologists. Today, they are the realities of business for financial institutions, thanks in no small part to the Financial Services Technology Consortium. Created in 1993 by leading financial services organizations, FSTC aims to achieve one goal: unite those in the industry to work collaboratively in a non-competitive, open forum to solve shared problems and challenges, as well as pioneer next generation technology that benefits us all.
Through FSTC, more than 100 of the top North American financial services and technology firms, academic institutions, and government agencies come together to discuss and research today’s technology issues and tomorrow’s technology-related needs.
With direction from our members, FSTC Standing Committees sponsor collaborative research projects, technology development pilots, proof-of-concept tests, and more. All of our projects seek to bring forward interoperable, open-standard technologies that make it possible for financial services companies to operate more profitably, efficiently, and safely, while sharing the data necessary to offer seamless customer service and stay competitive. |
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| FSTC sponsors noncompetitive collaborative research and development of interbank technical projects affecting the entire financial services industry. Our mission is to help our members collaborate on technical and business aspects of technologies so that they may rapidly bring innovations in service and quality closer to the marketplace and to their customers, while competing upon a bedrock of sound, shared technology fundamentals.
We make it our business to champion the investigations our members request. Together, our staff, members, and partners have built a premier industry research organization by staying true to the values our members' trust; who pride themselves on results delivered and value realized as a bedrock guiding principle; and who count our members' satisfaction and reinvestment as living proof of the value of the enterprise. Our projects, led by the FSTC Advisory Council's various standing committees, prototype and demonstrate interoperable infrastructures that address a wide array of industry-wide barriers, enabling members to bootstrap their own proprietary technologies and bring branded products and services to market. |
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FSTC sponsors noncompetitive collaborative research and development of interbank technical projects affecting the entire financial services industry. Our mission is to help our members collaborate on technical and business aspects of technologies so that they may rapidly bring innovations in service and quality closer to the marketplace and to their customers, while competing upon a bedrock of sound, shared technology fundamentals.
We make it our business to champion the investigations our members request. Together, our staff, members, and partners have built a premier industry research organization by staying true to the values our members' trust; who pride themselves on results delivered and value realized as a bedrock guiding principle; and who count our members' satisfaction and reinvestment as living proof of the value of the enterprise. Our projects, led by the FSTC Advisory Council's various standing committees, prototype and demonstrate interoperable infrastructures that address a wide array of industry-wide barriers, enabling members to bootstrap their own proprietary technologies and bring branded products and services to market. |
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| “One of the first obstacles we needed to overcome was how to create and process checks without paper. FSTC’s eCheck offered a flexible solution to this problem, allowing electronic check payments to be made and standardized on the Internet." |
Gary Grippo
Chief Architect
Electronic Commerce
Financial Management Services
U.S. Department of Treasury |
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| “Mellon Bank can see the tremendous potential of using the Internet as an efficient and low cost medium for transmitting payment instructions. FSTC’s design did not require a large investment in equipment or development time, and leveraged our existing ACH system. Most importantly, it provided flexible new payment initiation options for our corporate clients to offer to their customers." |
Nancy Atkinson
Vice President
Global Cash Management
Mellon Bank |
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| “Our long-term mission is the elimination of paper as early in the check collection process as practical. Check image exchange technology is the most significant opportunity to reduce check-clearing costs since the introduction of MICR technology in the 1960s. The functional requirements, specifications, and image-based rules developed by the FSTC PACES project formed the basis of SVPCo's image interchange strategy and will help us to quickly offer new services to our clients." |
Hank Farrar
President & Chief Operating Officer
SVPCo |
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| “Being part of an objective and independent voice authentication study offered great value as we began to prepare our business case for voice authentication. The FSTC study answered key questions about user acceptance that will be used to craft our enrollment strategy.” |
Thomas LaCentra
Vice President and Director
Customer Service
Wells Fargo |
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| Unlike other professional associations, FSTC member involvement isn't limited to the occasional seminar or conference. By participating in regular group calls and projects, members use our organization to hasten their research efforts, as well as make them better and more cost effective. Our past initiatives have sought to: |
- Compare technologies to determine which ones really live-up to their promises. FSTC sponsors side-by-side comparisons of emerging technical solutions in both laboratory and actual field operations. These tests reduce members' individual costs and, under FSTC project management, provide them with NIST-lab certified results. As an added benefit, members can compare notes on vendors and products with other financial institutions.
- Validate specifications to determine if they work and can be implemented. Industry groups turn to FSTC to validate early implementations of emerging industry specifications, confirming that each adheres to specifications, does what is claimed, and can be deployed for real world use.
- Prototype new infrastructures for financial transactions. Through initial design and repeated 90-day implementations, FSTC prototypes often provide a foundation for new products and services, and open up new markets to financial institutions. Members choose to participate in specific projects of interest, which they then fund and staff.
- In FSTC, members:
- Network with peers on shared technical challenges
- Stay current on developments and trends
- Cooperatively identify, investigate and assess new technologies, standards and trends
- Promote standards that open the gates to the next wave of business and competition
- Participate in trusted, third-party management of complex collaborations
- Gain a single voice in addressing the legal and regulatory dimension of complex technical issues facing the financial services industry
- Generate authoritative studies for distribution to the industry as a whole
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| FSTC strives to provide each member institution with the means to cooperate effectively on matters such as interoperability, protocols and standards that cannot be addressed individually, and thus promote the strength and competitiveness of the financial services industry. By providing the means for collaboration, FSTC strengthens its member institutions and strengthens the vitality of the financial industry. |
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To become part of this collaborative team of top professionals and make sure your organization is on the leading edge of tomorrow’s innovations and protocols, join FSTC today. |
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