IONA SIGNS ALLIANCE AGREEMENT WITH SOCIETY FOR WORLDWIDE INTERBANK FINANCIAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS (SWIFT)


Alliance Supports Delivery of SWIFT standard messaging via IONA's Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform; Highlights Web Services as Mechanism to Extend SWIFT and ISO-15022 Integration to Buy-side Participants

Waltham, MA -- August 5, 2002 - IONA®, the leading e-Business Platform provider for Web Services Integration (NASDAQ: IONA), today announced it has signed an alliance agreement with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications is a global community of financial institutions that provides a de facto messaging standard and value added network (VAN) for payment processing, treasury, securities and trade services between banks, brokers, market utilities and service providers to reduce costs, improve automation and manage risk. As an alliance partner, IONA will work with SWIFT and its member organizations to submit, adopt and promote SWIFT messaging standard proposals and technical guidelines.

More specifically, IONA will work with SWIFT to drive the adoption of Web services as a mechanism to extend industry integration to financial institutions of all sizes, including the growing number of smaller buy-side participants, such as investment managers and hedge funds. "Using a simpler and lower cost mechanism, like Web services, to extend SWIFT integration and leverage new standards, like ISO-15022, especially for buy-side participants, is really quite innovative and practical," said Linda Bookheim, Partner Solutions Business Manager at SWIFT. "As IONA looks to extend connectivity to SWIFT, we are pleased to welcome them as a SWIFT registered partner."

"For nearly 30 years, SWIFT has provided key messaging standards and infrastructure to the financial services community, facilitating inter-bank communication and securities settlement activities," said Gary Maier, Managing Director of Global Financial Services at IONA. "In most cases, however, the benefits of SWIFT have only been available to the largest of financial institutions. In part, this is due to the inherent complexity and cost of maintaining cryptic EDI messages over dedicated, and expensive, T1 lines. Of course, in order to achieve the global processing efficiencies and cost savings of true, industry-wide, Straight-Through Processing (STP), access to SWIFT and other related industry services must be made available to all participants. This can only be accomplished, however, by extending integration from the largest of mega money-center banks to the smallest of hedge funds. As a member of the SWIFT alliance, IONA is advocating the use of Web services, in conjunction with new industry XML standards, like ISO-15022, to dramatically ease this level of integration."

More than 350 financial service companies around the world already rely on IONA's Orbix E2A platforms, providing CORBA®, J2EE™ and Web services-based integration solutions for rapid, mission-critical and efficient transaction processing, including: ABN AMRO, Allianz, Bank of Montreal, Basler Insurance, BNP Paribas, Britannia, Chicago Stock Exchange, Credit Suisse, Freddie Mac, Macquarie Bank, Merrill Lynch, National Quotation Bureau, NFU Mutual Insurance, Orion, Postgirot Bank AB, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standards Chartered Bank, Swiss Bank, Systor, Tradepoint, UBS, Unicible, Winterthur Insurance, WorldStreet Corporation, and Zurich Insurance.


About IONA


IONA is the leading e-Business Platform provider for Web Services Integration with more than 4,500 customers worldwide. IONA Orbix E2A™, which consists of the award-winning Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform and Orbix E2A Application Server Platform, enables the flow of information across disparate systems and the liberation of application assets for new business opportunities.

Founded in 1991, IONA® (NASDAQ: IONA) is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. IONA had revenues of $181 million in 2001 and employs 800 people in more than 30 offices worldwide. For additional information about IONA, visit our Web site at http://www.iona.com.


IONA, IONA Technologies, the IONA logo, Orbix, E2A, End 2 Anywhere, End To Anywhere, Orbix E2A, IONA E2A, IONA e-Business Platform, iPortal Application Server, SureTrack, IONA XMLBus, Adaptive Runtime Technology, Orbacus, Orbix/E, IONA University and Total Business Integration are trademarks or registered trademarks of IONA Technologies PLC and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks that may appear herein are the property of their respective owners.

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