VIENNA, Austria, September 15 /PRNewswire/ --     
In the news release, "Microsoft to Sign Global Partnership With SWIFT, 
Driving Toward the Payments Platform of the Future" issued on 15 Sep 2008 
07:01 GMT, by Microsoft Corp. nasdaq:MSFT over PR Newswire, we are advised 
by a representative of the company that the first paragraph, first sentence, 
should read "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication 
(SWIFT)" rather than "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions 
(SWIFT)" as originally issued inadvertently. 
Complete, corrected release follows:



- Microsoft renews commitment to SWIFT and achieves SWIFTReady Financial
EAI Label for 2008.

Microsoft Corp. today announced at Sibos 2008 that it is signing a global
partnership agreement with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication (SWIFT). The announcement signifies a new, higher level of 
close cooperation between the organizations, under which they will work 
together to deliver deep industry value and simplify SWIFTNet implementation 
for customers using Microsoft technology. It is a mutual, commercially based
agreement between the organizations and will open further opportunities for
financial service providers and midsize to large corporations to quickly and
easily connect to SWIFT.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO )

"The dynamics of financial messaging are changing as institutions look
toward technology as a competitive differentiator," said Amanda Westwood,
global head of SWIFT's customer service division. "SWIFT customers demand
flexible messaging platforms that are cost effective to implement and
integrate with their existing systems. The continued work Microsoft does to
support SWIFTNet integration and SWIFTSolutions partners goes even further
toward helping expand these solutions for our customers both within
organizations and across boundaries. We expect our global partnership to
promote additional adoption of SWIFT connectivity and SWIFTSolutions in the
future."

The development of a SWIFT partner ecosystem will be an important aspect
of the global partnership. Microsoft is providing a solid and highly secure
foundation on which an expanded set of trusted industry partners can build
and implement solutions for SWIFT and deliver stronger solutions for
customers. It will also increase the choices available to customers, enabling
them to better compete through more flexible and scalable financial messaging
solutions.

As a respected voice in the area of payments technology, and
demonstrating its further commitment to both SWIFT and its international
partner ecosystem, Microsoft has, for the fifth year running, achieved the
SWIFTReady Financial EAI Label for 2008 for BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT,
which will be included in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009.

"We are constantly listening to our customers' feedback, and what we're
hearing from the financial services marketplace today is that they are
looking to Microsoft, as a respected leader in enabling payments solutions,
to provide increased flexibility beyond core SWIFT offerings," said David
Vander, worldwide managing director of Banking at Microsoft. "With BizTalk
Accelerator for SWIFT we are enabling fast and easy system interoperability
from bank systems to payments networks, thereby helping ensure that customers
receive the best possible solution to their business issues, whatever their
approach to payments may be. Microsoft continues to collaborate and invest in
a trusted community of partners to develop an ecosystem of payments
solutions. A number of these partners are represented here at Sibos,
including SWIFT, CashFac, DATALOG, Decillion, EastNets, Expertus, Fiserv
NetEconomy, Nimbus, SAGA, SMA Financial, SunGard and XSP, all of which
support the development of innovative, cost-effective, mission-critical
solutions that will deliver deep industry value for customers and more
effectively meet their payments needs globally."

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 with BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT will
enable financial institutions to access a comprehensive set of SWIFT
solutions and support for protocols, including adapters for SWIFTNet FileAct
and InterAct, which provide connectivity between Microsoft BizTalk Server and
the SWIFT secure IP network. It also includes business activity monitoring,
providing operations managers and business analysts with enhanced visibility
into transactions. As well, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 will offer extended
support of ISO 20022 message repairs, from correcting simple FIN messages to
addressing the needs of MX- and ISO 20022-based Extensible Markup Language
(XML) messages.

"With more than 8,200 customers today, Microsoft BizTalk Server leads the
markets as a solution for enterprise connectivity, enabling integration
across our customers' diverse set of heterogeneous systems, line-of-business
applications, mainframes and trading partners," said Robert Wahbe, corporate
vice president of the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft. "The Microsoft
BizTalk Server 2009 release further extends our commitment to ISO 20022
standards and will make it even easier for Microsoft and its partners to
build solutions for SWIFT connectivity."

In September 2008, Microsoft also committed to help drive modeling into
mainstream use and announced membership in the standards body Object
Management Group (OMG). OMG's modeling standards include the Unified Modeling
Language(TM) (UML(R)) and Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), and
Microsoft will take an active role in numerous OMG working groups to help
contribute to the open industry dialogue and assist with evolution of the
standards to meet mainstream customer needs. This move is a continuation of
the company's strong commitment to industry standards and will enable its
financial services partners and customers over time to more easily support
new industry transaction models.

About Microsoft in Financial Services

Microsoft's Financial Services Group helps financial firms leverage
technology to amplify the impact their people can deliver to drive business
success. We help our customers in banking, capital markets and securities,
and insurance achieve four business outcomes: develop relationships, drive
innovation, improve operations and build connections. To do this, we focus
our products and technologies, and our work with leading solutions, services
and hardware partners, on key areas where we believe we and our partners can
deliver exceptional value. Those areas include advisor platforms, channel
renewal, core banking, insurance value chain, investment management, risk
management and compliance, and payments. For more information, visit
http://www.microsoft.com/financialservices.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.

Web site: http://www.microsoft.com