By Roger Crombie The Bank of Bermuda has emerged as the "absolute global leader'' in multi-currency Internet transaction processing.

The bank has developed an electronic platform which enables transactions to be processed in any currency, a facility much in demand among e-commerce providers.

This week, a company called First Ecom.com, which provides Internet payment processing services, announced that it is working with the Bank of Bermuda and using its multi-currency Internet payment gateway.

The service will enable banks -- including U.S. banks -- to offer multi-currency processing services to businesses worldwide.

The new gateway, developed by Ecom.com in conjunction with the Bank of Bermuda, represents a major step by First Ecom.com toward creating a global payment processing platform for banks to offer a range of valuable processing services to their merchants.

Until now, most Internet merchants have been unable to accept credit cards issued by foreign banks due to their own banking restrictions. With the availability of the First Ecom.com/Bank of Bermuda processing solution, banks can give merchants access to a global marketplace, making it possible for them to accept credit cards issued in most countries.

The First Ecom.com system also creates a new type of customer for banks, resulting in new revenue opportunities.

"With this major multi-currency processing gateway in place, e-commerce has truly gone global,'' said Greg Pek, president and CEO of First Ecom.com. "The successful completion of the gateway, being the first of its kind, has firmly established First Ecom's leadership position in Internet payment processing.

We also have eliminated a major roadblock for banks in cross-border Internet transactions and expect to see a strong increase in business-to-consumer e-commerce activities worldwide.'' Mr. Pek said that he believes his company to be "months ahead of any other company planning to offer multi-currency Internet transaction processing. We have a significant head start to establish ourselves as the dominant outsource processing partner for the banking industry globally,''.

Pek added that, given the current Y2K deadline for certifying new systems, it is unlikely that any competitor will have a similar multi-currency capability for several months. Additionally, the new multi-currency payment processing gateway gives First Ecom.com a key and unique capability to offer banks a new service, which currently do not generally have a true multi-currency capability.

"While the Internet is growing by leaps and bounds in the Asia Pacific region, it is not yet a fully global medium'', said Joe Sweeney, research director, GartnerGroup. "Much of the e-commerce activity is centered on North American initiatives and currency. Multi-currency settlement services will allow the larger web merchants to internationalise their operations. Localised currency with localised logistics has the potential to truly globalise e-commerce, meaning more activity and competition for the Asia Pacific region.'' The new payment processing gateway will initially be able to process Internet credit card transactions in U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, Hong Kong dollars, Pounds Sterling, and the Euro.

It is expected that Japanese Yen will be available within the next few months.

Additional currencies will be added as needed. The system, which is scalable and backed by complete redundancy, can now process 800 transactions per second. "The Bank of Bermuda is in a unique position to offer credit card processing through First Ecom's global Internet payment gateway'', said David Lema, vice president of electronic banking at the Bank of Bermuda.

"Electronic commerce has opened a whole new dimension of marketing to consumers and businesses over the past five years, and multi-currency settlement goes one step further to provide complete flexibility and choice of payment on-line,'' Mr. Lema said.

"In addition, our partnership arrangement with First Ecom allows Internet merchants worldwide to process multi-currency transactions without the need to establish multiple banking relationships, as well as the benefits of settling card transactions in Bermuda, the world's premier offshore financial jurisdiction.''