World Briefs

SWX Reduces Costs

SWX Swiss Exchange (Zurich) has teamed with SISInterSettle (Zurich) and Clearstream (Frankfurt, Germany) to launch a service that will reduce the costs involved in the cross-border settlement of German mortgage bonds.

SunGard Joins Swift

SunGard (Calabasas, Calif.) has become a fully paid-up member of SWIFT (Brussels, Belgium) and launched a new MessageHub and outsourcing service for connecting clients to the international financial network.

Bank of Tokyo Gets Smart

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTM), based in Tokyo, is launching a payments card that uses fingerprints as well as PINs to verify cardholders at ATMs. The bank is considering issuing up to one million smart credit and debit cards featuring the biometric technology next year.

Bankgellschaft Goes Algo

German banking group Bankgesellschaft (Berlin) has implemented Toronto-based Algorithmics' credit risk management product, Algo Credit. Algo Credit provides Bankgesellschaft with an integrated framework for managing credit risk across the enterprise, covering global limits and counterparty exposures for both trading and banking book products.

Clear2Pay Acquires EDB

Brussels, Belgium-based payments software vendor Clear2Pay has acquired EDB Business Partner's Dutch subsidiary MaXware Benelux (Amsterdam). MaXware Benelux supplies transaction management software as well as security, messaging and reporting technology to financial services firms.

Latvian BanK/TietoEnator

Latvian Business Bank (Riga, Latvia) will begin issuing Mastercard credit and debit cards using TietoEnator's (Espoo, Finland) card processing software, Transmaster. TietoEnator's Transmaster product covers the complete cycle of payment card processing, from card issuing to e-payments via the Internet and mobile devices.

Banco de Credito Renews ACI

Banco de Credito del Peru (Lima, Peru) has signed a new five year contract for ACI Worldwide's (Omaha, Neb.) electronic payments processing platform Base24. Banco de Credito has been using the Base24 system 1993.

Bank of Australia/PayLite

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Sydney) has released PayLite, a compact version of its eftpos terminal specifically designed for smaller businesses that process fewer transactions. As a result, the bank will cut 3,700 jobs between July 2003 and June 2006 because PayLite will streamline its operations. The bank has already completed around 25 percent of the reduction.

ING Licenses SimCorp

ING Verzekeringen, ING's Amsterdam, Netherlands-based insurance subsidiary, has recently licensed SimCorp's (Copenhagen, Denmark) flagship asset management system, SimCorp Dimension.

ABC Bank Uses Infosys

Kenya's African Banking Corp. (ABC Bank, Nairobi, Kenya) has licensed Bangalore, India-based Infosys Technologies' retail banking package, Finacle. ABC will initially roll out the core banking and treasury modules from Finacle across all its branches in Kenya.