International Bytes

Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag (DSV), a central card service provider for the 18,000 branches of Germany's Sparkassen mutual savings bank, will install the web-enabled ANDiS card and application management system from Bell ID, a Rotterdam-based subsidiary of Bell Group plc, London.

The ANDiS Solution will support DSV in managing their VeriSign PKI token like signature cards and software certificates. ANDiS system will also eventually be used for managing DSV's more than 40 Million SECCOS payment smart cards.

By choosing ANDiS, DSV has obtained a solution supporting the migration from magnetic stripe bankcards to smart cards, compliant with EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) and GlobalPlatform specifications.

"The DSV is a service provider for a large number of bank branches and offers different card and PKI products, said Dr. Rdiger Mock-Hecker, division manager card services at DSV. "The ANDiS system perfectly reflects DSV's demands to a central, secure and flexible management system. With migrating to smart cards and having the ANDiS system in place it also enables us to offer additional target group specific card and card application services."

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Close Brothers (Cayman) Limited merchant bank has selected MFACT, a state-of-the-art fully automated accounting and administration system from Global Investment Systems (GIS), Dublin, Ireland, to handle their mutual fund accounting and administration services.

MFACT is a complete software package designed for "in-house" operations to support all aspects and phases of investment and financial accounting, particularly for funds and Unit Trusts that must compute a daily Net Asset Value (NAV). It is a fully automated system, continually updated to meet regulatory mandates and features online access and reporting, with highly flexible accounting and fully integrated functions, eliminating the need for individual spreadsheet functions.

The newest version computes the SEC required before, after-tax pre-liquidation and after-tax post liquidation returns, as well as the new Tax Advantaged Liquidation Method, which allows fund administrators to minimize the tax burden that shareholders must bear on capital gains distributions.

In commenting upon the agreement with GIS, Mr. said, "We selected MFACT for our offshore needs because of its reputation with other firms on the island," said Ian Lawrence, director of funds services and client accounts for Close Brothers (Cayman) Limited. "When we began looking at vendors for administration, GIS had the most important ingredients we needed: international expertise in financial software, a good reputation for service and reliability, and attractive (competitive) pricing."

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Goldfish Bank Limited, a joint venture of Centrica plc and Lloyds TSB, has engaged Sanchez Computer Associates to provide custom development and support services for a new banking products. Goldfish will also utilize the Sanchez Profile(r) processing application Sanchez developed for Evolvebank, the Internet bank owned by Lloyds TSB, to support multi-channel banking transactions.

Sanchez solutions are designed to empower financial institutions to accelerate business transformation and achieve a competitive advantage by lowering operating costs, reducing technology risks and improving customer management.

Sanchez Profile(r) is a software application that makes it easy for banking customers to use virtually any channel to make deposits, apply for loans and transfer money between funds - either in person or by telephone, or directly through the Internet or digital television. And, without adding new software, Sanchez Profile makes it easy to create and add financial products quickly to meet customers' needs.

"We are delighted to add Goldfish Bank to a growing roster of European financial institutions choosing Sanchez to help them quickly and flexibly expand their customer offerings," said Doug Enns, Sanchez managing director - International Operations. "Sanchez provides real time multi-lingual, multi-currency banking solutions throughout Europe, including: Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, and the United Kingdom."