INTERNATIONAL BYTES

Deutsche Bank has entered into an alliance with Bank of China to develop custody services for China.

The arrangement calls for Deutsche Bank to provide industry expertise on security services, including fund administration, trustee services, securities lending and cash management. The bank will also offer extensive training for Bank of China personnel in these areas.

Bank of China, one of China's oldest banks with a network of 559 branches in six continents, will provide knowledge of local market practices and access to its network of local business contacts.

"This exclusive alliance with Bank of China is a very clear signal that we are committed to our business in Asia," said Juergen Marziniak of Deutsche Bank.

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Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), the investment banking division of Dresdner Bank Group, has installed a new server from Financial Fusion.

The server is an end-to-end global solution that will provide Dresdner investment customers and brokers a single point of connection through which to trade electronically. It features middleware that enables clients to run multiple protocol standards including OFX, FIX and SWIFT simultaneously and can be scaled up to handle millions of users.

"DrKW is pre-eminent in creating the seamless services that our global client base demands," said Conor Killeen, head of Global Equities for the bank. "Our system choice needs to reflect the importance we place on the globalization of services. The technology places us firmly at the forefront of connectivity capability."

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ABN AMRO has selected 500 BridgeChannel workstations to supply all their branches throughout The Netherlands with real-time financial data and news.

BridgeChannel, a product of Bridge Information Systems, is an information solution that utilizes Java-based Internet tools to deliver streaming news, data, and analytics.

"Through its state-of-the-art technology, BridgeChannel is a direct cost saver for ABN AMRO as it is the most bandwidth efficient product in the market today," said Lars Bruinsma, manager of Netherlands Market Data for the bank.

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Overseas Union Bank (OUB), Singapore, will be the pilot for CCEWeb's GlobalTrade Secure Payment and Trade Management System. Once in place, the system will provide OUB customers with an end-to-end electronic documentary credit solution.

CCEWeb will provide the technology, software and legal framework for handling electronic documentary credits including presentation of electronic documents. Dresdner Bank AG will act as documentary clearance center for the pilot and provide documentary compliance services.

GlobalTrade makes it possible for a documentary credit to be issued and advised over the Internet from anywhere in the world, eliminates the need to pay cash in advance for purchases, abolishes delays caused by discrepancies in paper-based processing, and allows tracking of the entire transaction process online in real time.

"With the recent trend of globalization and technological advancement, it is important that trade services provision is able to transcend time and geographical boundaries," said Soh Chee Seng, vice president and head of Trade Services for OUB.