PRESS RELEASES
2011   2010   2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2004   2003   2002  

November 21, 2007

LEVEL FOUR JOINS XFS TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

LONDON, 21st NOVEMBER 2007. Level Four Software, a leading supplier of open standards-based ATM software, today announced that it has joined the Technical Committee for the eXtensions for Financial Services (XFS) standard, part of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN, Comite Europeen de Normalisation). As committee members, Level Four will strengthen the voice of independent suppliers of ATM software in an open standards environment.

A key objective of CEN’s XFS Technical Committee is to define and oversee a way of enabling ATM hardware and software from different providers to communicate with each other through the XFS open standard, and thus abstracting the ATM hardware from the application software that drives it. By utilising the XFS standard, ATM deployers can independently choose best of breed hardware and software and will typically deploy a single software application across a network of ATM hardware provided from one or more ATM providers. This approach helps ATM deployers move away from a proprietary world, reducing single vendor lock-in and giving ATM deployers more choice. As the move to open standards gathers pace, software is becoming increasingly key to unlocking value from the ATM channel and delivering the type of functionality that today’s deployers aspire to.

With leading banks across EMEA and North America using modules from its BRIDGE family of open standards ATM solutions, Level Four is in a strong position to add to the voice of ISVs on CEN’s XFS Technical Committee. BRIDGE enables the building and deployment of open ATM solutions in a modern, holistic environment. This increases the opportunity for ATM deployers to interact with other bank systems and third parties, reduce their costs, raise service levels, generate new revenue streams and improve network uptime.

Ian Kerr, CEO of Level Four, said: “As open standards gain momentum, there is a greater need in the ATM marketplace for ISVs to help with the development of the XFS standard and to ensure that all ATM parties adhere to the open standard. This is the only way that the industry can move forward and unlock the potential of ATMs as dynamic and revenue-generating customer touchpoints. Our participation in the XFS Technical Committee will support our strategy for BRIDGE to help ATM deployers take control of the channel and empower them to offer the sorts of functionality they (and their customers) desire.”

Notes to editors:
o More information on the CEN/WS XFS eXtensions for Financial Services can be found at: http://www.cen.eu

About Level Four
Level Four’s development and testing products have been built to address the needs of ATM deployers seeking to maximize their investment in the ATM channel.

BRIDGE:test is targeted at banks and ATM deployers who are running, or seeking to run, a modern ATM network based on the industry-wide CEN/XFS open standard.  BRIDGE:test provides an enterprise regression test platform to test CEN/XFS based applications in a controlled environment. Customers gain benefits of the breadth of testing and improved quality assurance as well as reduced time to market due to increased testing efficiencies.

ATM Developer is targeted at banks and ATM deployers who are running states & screens protocol controlled applications such as those based on NDC or 912. ATM Developer provide a graphical environment in which customers can maintain the configuration file from creation to validation.

Since 1995, Level Four has built an impressive global customer base of banks and payments processors including, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, Bank of America, CIBC, VocaLink and Standard Bank of South Africa. Headquartered in Dunfermline, Scotland, Level Four has offices in Dubai and Charlotte, NC, USA. http://www.levelfour.com  

Level Four’s online ATM industry resource: www.atmindustryinfo.com 

For more information, please contact:
Nicola Koronka
Hotwire
+44 (0) 20 7608 4673
levelfour 'at' hotwirepr.com