Cable & Wireless has entered a partnership agreement with software house Gresham Computing to provide financial institutions with a secure network in which to share Nostro account information.
Under the agreement, C&W's Internet infrastructure will be combined with Gresham's end-to-end software applications, and Digital Island's (a wholly owned C&W subsidiary) 2Way Web services hosting capability. The technologies will build on work begun by the Open Group to create open data standards for all types of payments passing through banks.
The new venture, which will focus on settlement risk, liquidity, and operational risk, will be marketed globally by C&W as the company's Real Time Nostro product. It is scheduled to be commercially available in the summer of 2002.
Unique features of the product will include time-stamped information, an irrevocability indicator confirming completed transactions and IP-based network connections for all subscriber banks running Nostro accounts, worldwide.
Andrew Walton-Green, chief executive of Gresham, comments: "I believe this service will provide customers with a powerful mechanism to share information and improve performance in the global financial system. Compared with current batch processes we are building the foundation for a wholly new way of dealing with payments information."