NORTH AMERICA BYTES

Citibank announced that customers of c2it, its online person-to-person payments system, now have the capability to efficiently and affordably send money to recipients in 30 countries around the world through their desktop PC.

The c2it international payment is carried out via Citibank's international money transfer system. Customers in the U.S. can access the system through a PC and use their credit or debit card to send money overseas. Senders will be charged US$10 for each transaction. Recipients in the destination countries will receive the money through either international direct deposit or paper check, thereby negating the need for Internet or email access. In most cases, the money can also be sent in local currency.

"Today's launch of international service is an important milestone to achieving our goal of building a person-to-anywhere (P2A) system of online funds transfers and establishing c2it as a standard for Internet payments," said Antony Jenkins, chief operating officer, c2it. "We are now basically building on the backbone of our international credit card and foreign exchange business by applying technology that allows our customers to tap into our existing capability."

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Bank or Montreal has selected a person-to-person cash transfer system from CertaPay Inc., to enable its customers to receive money via email.

When the CertaPay platform is up later this year, customers will be able to transfer funds by logging on to their existing Web account, and clicking on the email payment feature which allows them to enter the recipient's name and email address. An email message immediately notifies the recipient that the funds have arrived. The recipient can then decide if they want the cash directed toward their savings, checking or credit card account.

Scotiabank, CIBC and TD Canada Trust will also take part in the CertaPay email system.

"CeraPay's email money system addresses a real customer need that, so far, has been unfulfilled in the payments industry," said Marnie Kinsley, executive vice president, e-Business, Bank of Montreal. "That's the need to easily, securely and affordably transfer money person-to-person electronically."

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First Union will implement an Internet-based human capital management solution from White Amber. First Union will use the system throughout its enterprise to help manage its contract workforce.

The system will be used by the bank's Procurement, Human Resources and Financial departments to articulate procurement policy, establish user authority, and track procedural preferences, supplier preferences, supplier agreements and historical information.

"White Amber's solution will enable us to be more efficient on an enterprise level and more effectively manage the costs associated with securing contract resources and labor," said Sharon Smart, senior vice president of Human Resources and Enterprise Services at First Union.

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Signature Bank of New York has selected an integrated end-to-end banking application package from ALLTEL.

ALLTEL's Information Services package will provide Signature Bank with the majority of its in-house information technology software. This software will allow the bank to power lending, deposit and retail delivery services to its high-end clientele.

"The New York market includes a large number of successful individual and businesses who require more personalized service than the huge commercial banks and brokerage firms can provide, but are not on the radar screen of traditional private banks and investment houses who focus their services on the super rich," said Joe DePaolo, president of Signature Bank. "These are our clients. By partnering with ALLTEL, we are able to provide our clients with the level of services they need and deserve."

Signature bank is backed by bank Hapoalim of Tel Aviv, and opened six New York locations on May 1.

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The Information Technology subsidiary of Fiserv has partnered with ASV Technologies to create eBank Discovery, a system that will help financial institutions identify and reduce forged checks.

eBank Discovery consists of advanced automatic signature verification software that uses multiple feature set extraction technology to analyze the state and quality of two-dimensional characteristics. Through this study, the software can determine if a signature is real or fake.

The system has undergone testing at the State Bank of Long Island, New Hyde Park, N.Y. "We formerly verified only a small number of threshold item visually," said Ray Wagner, first vice president of Bank Operations. "Now we are very confident that no forged check can escape our detection net."