ABN Amro is to upgrade its Automated Clearing House (ACH) operations in the US using technology and services from CheckFree.
Under a new alliance services agreement, CheckFree technical and operational resources will work with ABN Amro staff to upgrade the bank's existing CheckFree system to the next release of the vendor's DB2-based PEP+ Platinum product.
The bank will also install CheckFree's PEP+ Exchange Internet front-end to provide its cash management customers with 24x7 Web-based access to ACH information.
ABN AMRO plans to roll out the new services to corporate customers by the end of 2002.
The Dutch bank's move follows the first phase roll-out of the PEP+ system by Comerica in a move which the bank says increases speed and processing capacity via the ACH. The second phase, scheduled for production in the third quarter of 2002, will introduce multi-task collection capability and enable the bank to process multiple ACH files simultaneously. Implementation of the final phase PEP+ Exchange Internet front-end at Comerica is currently under review.