Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) has joined Bolero, the secure online electronic trading platform over which web-based systems for trade transactions can be run.

ANZ has already taken part in Bolero-facilitated live transactions in conjunction with business units within the giant BHP Billiton natural resources group and Coal & Allied, a Rio Tinto Group company in Australia, and says it is planning further involvement with other corporate customers in Australia and New Zealand over coming months.

Strategy component

"Joining Bolero is an important part of our overall trade and e-commerce strategy to be the leading provider of trade and financial services in Australia and New Zealand, as well as throughout Asia and the Pacific where ANZ is extensively represented," said Carole Anderson, managing director of ANZ's Global Transaction Services.

The adoption of Bolero is also in line with ANZ's eTransformation strategy and complements its involvement in Proponix trade processing according to Anderson. Proponix is an outsourcing model that aims to provide financial institutions worldwide with the technologies to outsource their back-office trade activities while retaining full control of their customer relationships. Processing transactions offered by Proponix include letters of credit, guarantees, bankers' acceptance, documentary collections and reimbursements.

Outsourcing implementations

Proponix has already implemented an outsourcing facility to ANZ, which is also one of the service provider's four founding members. It expects to complete outsourcing implementations for two more founding members - Bank of Montreal and Barclays Bank plc - by spring 2002. The fourth founding member of Proponix is trade finance software specialist, American Management Systems (AMS).

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.