The back-office processing services company established last year by Bank of Montreal, Barclays Bank PLC, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and trade finance technology provider, American Management Systems (AMS), has announced that it is now providing services to its first customer.

Proponix offers an outsourcing model that it claims is unique in the trade finance industry. According to the company, the model enables financial institutions worldwide to outsource their back-office trade activities while retaining full control of their customer relationships. Processing transactions offered by Proponix include letters of credit (L/Cs), guarantees, banker's acceptance, documentary collections and reimbursements.

The first customer is one of the Toronto-headquartered technology company's founders, ANZ, which says it expects to realise benefits including improved processing speed and increased functionality. Proponix says it expects to complete outsourcing implementations for co-founders Bank of Montreal and Barclays Bank PLC by Spring 2002.

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