NORTH AMERICA BYTES

Bank of New York has joined a consortium of financial businesses to create an independent company that will develop an Internet-based straight-through-processing (STP) solution for the global asset management community.

Partnering with Bank of New York in this company, which will be called Encompys, are Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting), Advent Software Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., and Microsoft Corp. The combined total investment of the partners at launch, exclusive of service provider agreements, is approximately $50 million.

The Encompys product will provide asset managers with the first fully integrated end-to-end STP outsourcing solution through a dedicated Internet portal, essentially creating an efficient and low-risk alternative to building internal T+1 compliant systems. Bank of New York will provide middle- and back-office trade execution, securities servicing support and master record-keeping services.

PIMCO, one of the world's largest fund managers, will be Encompys' first client.

'Our investment in Encompys underscores Bank of New York's commitment to being the premier provider of outsourcing services to the world's most sophisticated asset managers," said Thomas J. Perna, senior executive vice president at the bank.

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Customers using E*Trade ATMs will soon be able to transfer funds between E*Trade bank and brokerage accounts with the behind-the-scenes help from the Postilion electronic funds transfer system from Mosaic Software, Deerfield Beach, Fla.

"The middleware is a critical component, although it's not something customers can do yet," said Deborah Newman, an E*Trade spokeswoman. "This is laying the groundwork."

E*Trade Bank currently has $12.1 billion in assets, $6.7 billion in deposits from over 404,000 customer accounts, an over 10,000 ATMs in its nationwide network.

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Bank of America has selected S1 Corp.'s Trade Finance platform to deliver its suite of global trade services to clients over the Internet.

The Global Trade module will provide straight-through processing for Bank of America's full range of trade products, including export, import, and standby letters of credit, collection and purchase order processing. The product will be added to Bank of America Direct, the institution's transaction and information platform that allows clients to manage trade activities over the Web.

"Our continuing investment in trade technology enables both out importing and exporting clients worldwide to complete their cross-border trade transactions with minimal effort and maximum speed, by communicating with Bank of America over the Web," said Frank Abraham, head of global trade services for Bank of America.

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PNC Treasury Management will add a comprehensive suite of payment products from Politzer & HANEY to its current array of online cash management services available to corporate clients through PNC's Internet Service Center. These new products will allow clients to originate ACH, stop payment, image inquiry and wire payment over the Web.

These services, which our part of Politzer & HANEY's new UNIX-based CorPoint product line, will be available 24/7 through a secure online portal using a standard industry PC browser.

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The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has installed Financial Models Co.'s Windows 2000 server platform for retail branch banking.

The platform will be deployed in 1,300 CIBC branches and used by over 20,000 employees. It is the first known use of a native Windows 2000 infrastructure platform for retail branch banking.

"The new system will provide us with a the foundation delivery platform for new applications and services as we refocus on providing faster and more reliable service to customers through our branch network," said Linda Dentay, vice president of retail and small business technology at CIBC.