All UK FPS member banks adopt VersaTest

SAUSALITO, USA: Ascert has announced that all of the initial UK Faster Payments (FPS) Member Banks have now purchased its VersaTest product for certification testing. Last year, Ascert, LLC was selected by Immediate Payments, Ltd. (now part of VocaLink) as their partner of choice to provide the approved certification testing engine for the UK Faster Payments scheme. Now all thirteen of the initial Member Banks are testing their gateway systems with a derivation of Ascert’s VersaTest product.

Rob Walker, Managing Director of Ascert’s UK operation, says, “IPL was looking for a tool that would provide a flexible method for the member banks to carry out certification of their Gateways and would also be extensible by them to carry out more intensive functional testing.”

Delivery of the Ascert solution, based around a customized version of the widely used VersaTest product, commenced in December 2006, with the last six months having seen every Member Bank purchase the product. Ascert’s specialized FPS Member Simulator utilizes the first implementation of its Driver Framework Standard (DFS) and requires no custom scripting by the Members, because tests are defined using test data list files..

Rob Walker concluded, “The use of the DFS standard in this simulator means that in future, FPS Members will be able to easily plug their VersaTest tests into HP Quality Center and automate the functional and certification testing of their FPS Gateway applications through this leading test management product.”

With the FPS Member Simulator, Ascert moves a step closer to its long term goal of automating the entire testing lifecycle.