Winterbotham Group licenses two modules of the IPBS suite of financial services programmes
Apr 27th, 2002

The Nassau Guardian

NASSAU, BAHAMAS - The Trust and Mutual Funds Accounting Management modules of the Bahamas-developed, International Private Banking Systems software package (IPBS2000) have attracted the renowned Winterbotham Group with offices in Uruguay and Nassau.

Much to the gratification of Nassau-based International Private Banking Systems (IPBS) president, Mr. Bruce Raine and his local tech team, the Winterbotham Group has licensed two of the Modules in their IPBS2000 suite of financial services programmes. The Mutual Funds and Share Registry Module and the Trust Accounting Module have been licensed first and it is expected that once these are up and operational, the Banking module will follow.

"I started speaking with Geoff Hooper, the principal behind the Winterbotharn Group in the early nineties," remembers CEO Bruce Raine. "And in those days, we offered either a DOS based solution or a mainframe IBM AS/400 solution. Our solution today is reflective of the advances in technology and so our platform now is totally Microsoft Windows based, with fully integrated functional modules. A truly turnkey software application package that provides multiple entity, multi currency management and accounting information systems to the international financial services industry."

The Winterbotharn Group of Latin and North America, Canada, Europe and the Far East is a prestigious name in the financial services world and Bruce Raine has over the last nine years target marketed the group as a good candidate for his product, the IPBS2000. The Winterbotharn Group is a privately held group of companies renowned for its tailor-made financial fiduciary and administrative services worldwide to corporate and institutional customers and their shareholders. Bart Corredera, chief operating officer of Winterbotham in Nassau, said that the IPBS financial management software modules are a good fit for The Winterbotham Group.

"This is what we needed and we liked the idea of having a local provider for quick and good on-shore service; also, we've known about IPBS for many years - they're tried and tested." Ian McConnell assistant vice president of finance speaking from the Winterbotharn Bank in Uruguay remarked that the deciding factors were that the IPBS2000 was compatible with their existing IT infrastructure and filled a need within the client management structure. "We've had many discussions with Bruce Raine over the years and we've always liked the product, although we've looked at others, so it's really a matter of this being the right time for us and Bruce having the right product and price."

"Winterbotham has been on my marketing list since we started 9 years ago," Bruce Raine said of the Uruguay-based group, "so this is very gratifying - we're looking forward to the implementation and of course a growing client relationship."

Winterbotharn is a multi -jurisdictional group of companies already harnessing the power and economy of the Internet in their daily business operations. With people in both The Bahamas and Uruguay offices needing on-line real time access to the IPBS2000 system, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) over the internet was created to link the Nassau and Montevideo banks as if they were in the same building. Staff in both countries can now operate with the same software and database.

IPBS's Internet-based IPBS solution is known as IPBS.NET and the first installation was made nine months ago for Brazilian owned Trend Bank Limited (and several since) IPBS also built VPN's to link their operation across three countries.

The IPBS2000 Internet offering is rich in functionality and allows bank clients to access and print any of the reports that the bank would non-nally mail them. This offering also empowers the bank's clients to initiate banking transactions at any time of day or night from any where in the world via the Internet using their private password. Clients can initiate payments to third parties, foreign exchange currency trading, placing of deposits as well as securities trading. And all of these transactions may be conducted by the client in the language of their choice.

"In the international world of financial services," explained Bruce Raine, "requirements like those of Trend Bank Ltd., and the Winterbotham Group are becoming typical. The global village is here and geographical borders are no more. Historically," he added, "our primary business has been for the IPBS2000 Private Banking Module. We have seen an increase recently for the Mutual Fund and Share Registry Module, and we think this is because it is one of the areas that will be the least impacted by all of the changes in our current financial services market."

International Private Banking Systems has offices in Nassau and Grand Cayman, its second major business market. It is Bahamian-owned and staffed and a major participant in the global financial services market where it enjoys a reputation as a leader in financial services technology applications. IPBS serves a broad range of clients in nine international jurisdictions and was the first software company in The Bahamas to export a technology-based product. IPBS continually markets its products and services through its highly successful Web site http://www.ipbs.com, direct mail and with informative seminars for the financial services industry.

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