American Management Systems has begun the commercial roll-out of the Proponix trade finance pay-per-transaction system, acquired last year from joint venture banking partners Barclays, ANZ and Bank of Montreal.
At the time of the Proponix buy-out in November 2002, AMS claimed a sales pipeline of some 25 banks for the ASP-based version of the system.
Five months on and the company has yet to sign up any additional banks beyond founding partners ANZ and BMO for a service which it claims can achieve an increase in transaction processing throughput of around 30%.
Lee Kidder, director of wholesale banking research at TowerGroup, believes the Proponix ASP model will get a hearing. "Many banks simply don't have the volume of trade finance activity to support investing in infrastructure but face continued demand from their customer base to stay in the business," he says. "A pay-per-transaction technology solution that enables them to offer customised trade finance products over a shared infrastructure certainly meets the call."
Proponix offers access to a trade processing system, workflow and imaging solutions, an online reporting system and a corporate trade portal - a Web-based, self-service application that enables a bank's customers to manage transactions, make inquiries and run reports online. Portal users are identified and authenticated using digital certificates.