The venture will make its first public appearance at the one-day DWT conference and exhibition in London next week where it will unveil an early prototype, x-Treasury.NET. Although the .NET development environment is only available from Microsoft in beta form, e-portals is promising to demonstrate working prototypes of derivative pricing and deal capture software developed using this technology and written in the new highly productive C# programming language.

E-portals is appealing for banks and other partners to participate in the evolution of the product set. Early stage partners will be able to influence the initial instrument and functional coverage and gain discounted terms for the use of the products as they emerge, says the company.

"X-Treasury.NET is not just Web enabled, but is a true Web application" says Hovland, "Solutions to long-standing treasury problems, such as global risk monitoring, which few have solved and none at a reasonable cost are now easily and cheaply accessible".

The company has commenced the development of a range of components, Web services and systems for corporate and bank treasury functions which Hovland says will be available at a price consistent with rapid development technology.
The product design covers instrument pricing, deal capture, position keeping, risk management, and client limit utilisation. Development is commencing with derivative instruments in markets largely ignored by current software vendors says Hovland.

The products will be multi-currency, multi-branch, multi-location and be capable of producing integrated global information in real-time, he says. Access to all services, including support and maintenance, will be via secure and encrypted browser access.

Hovland has recruited Ian Chester as non-executive chairman, and Mario Rosi as a strategic advisor. Chester guided Financial Objects through its IPO as managing director and recently set up his own business development company. Rosi, currently based in Australia, was a senior manager at Reuters when the Reuter Monitor and Reuter Monitor Dealing were first launched and Triarch development commenced.

"I was with Reuters when we brought in Hal's first commercial product, which he then turned into the Reuter Position Keeping Service. After I left Reuters, I worked with him as a Director of 9000 Limited before it was sold to Financial Objects and I am happy to be involved now with e-portals".