A top Bermudian electronic commerce company has been promoting Bermuda to Latin American businesses at a prestigious annual event held by Visa in the United States.

First Atlantic Commerce was the only e-commerce payment solutions provider invited to attend Visa Latin America, Caribbean Region Annual General Meeting in New York.

Two delegates were at the event, which had as its guests 350 banks from the Latin America and Caribbean Region.

There were also approximately 1,100 representatives from every country in the continent, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Panama, and the Caribbean.

First Atlantic was set up two years ago and works mainly with businesses to find ways of making the most of the Internet, through payment methods and business-to-business transactions.

Spokeswoman for First Atlantic, Anne Loxton, said from New York: "From First Atlantic's perspective, the meeting is strategic in that we can work closely with banks throughout this region that currently do not have an e-commerce solution available to them.

"First Atlantic Commerce will be able to implement processing services to these banks enabling them to leap-frog into the e-commerce market sooner than expected. Up until this regional AGM, these banks were not aware that solutions such as First Atlantic Commerce's were even available to them.'' According to First Atlantic Commerce, the company's attendance at the meeting is strategic for Bermuda as they were one of the first `non member' companies to ever be invited to a Visa AGM Member meeting.

Miss Loxton said: "This positions Bermuda well as the offshore jurisdiction of choice within this lucrative market. This invitation also exemplifies the type of partnership First Atlantic Commerce has established with Visa and other companies that are vitally important to the success of e-commerce in Bermuda and around the world.'' First Atlantic Commerce was the only Internet payment solutions provider in attendance at the meeting, and one of four e-commerce providers at the event.

Miss Loxton said: "We have received a lot of interest from the banks in attendance as many are ready to take a foothold in the e-commerce market, and are interested in learning about the alternatives for payment processing and settlement.'' Other companies at the annual event were Oasis, Hypercom, Schlumberger, VeriFone, ACI, and various Smart Card chip card technologies.