HVB partners with GTC to bring to market multi-bank applications for trade services

Toronto Canada, September 5, 2006 >- Germany’s Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG (HVB) member of Unicredit Group has partnered with Canadian Globaltrade Corporation (GTC) to bring to market applications for handling guarantees, letters of credit, and documentary collections designed for corporates that require connections to multiple banks. The applications are based on the @GlobalTrade Platform technology designed and developed by GTC over the last four years with input from HVB, DaimlerChrysler, ChevronTexaco, Europcell, Siemens, and other corporates and banks.

HVB is hosting @GlobalTrade applications for Guarantee Issuance, Export Letter of Credit, and Documentary Collection processing at its data centre in Munichand providing those applications as a service to its clients and their banks. Corporate clients using these applications are not limited to HVB and can connect to all their banks. Now corporates do not need to enter multiple proprietary bank systems to communicate with their respective banks electronically when applying for letters of credit and guarantee issuance or receiving export letters of credit and drawing details. This brings about considerable cost savings, improved risk control, and real time information across all banking relationships.

‘The adoption of @GlobalTrade Platform by HVB brings about a paradigm shift in the bank’s thinking about open multi-bank platforms,’ said Jacob Katsman, GTC’s CEO. ‘HVB has realized that its large customers want to communicate with all their banks in trade transactions through a single web-based platform and it has delivered on this promise.’

‘It is HVB’s main target to provide its customers with trade services holding a genuine surplus value,’ states Markus Wohlgeschaffen, Managing Director and Head of Trade and Payment Products at HVB. ‘The biggest potential for enhancing value can be realized by the conversion of the physical and financial supply chain. This, however, implies one fundamental prerequisite: the thorough understanding that customers are the driving force in all foreign trade processes and that all other parties, including banks, are only subordinated participants. For this reason, we believe in customer-oriented multi-bank and multi-entity solutions like @GlobalTrade.’

‘By adopting @GlobalTrade Platform technology HVB sets the foundation for a new approach to servicing a wide range of its corporate customers,’ said Nick Pachnev, CTO of GTC. ‘Comprehensive functionality and flexible modular design allow the bank to use the same IT infrastructure for servicing specific needs of multinationals and offering standard services to mid-size and small clients. Web-based multi-company and multi-bank access offered by HVB as a service reduces roll-out costs for corporate clients and their trade service providers.’

About GlobalTrade Corporation

GlobalTrade Corporation is a software development house and applications service provider. The company designs, develops and manages innovative, collaborative products and services for global trade industry. GlobalTrade customers are producers and traders that require consolidated access to multiple banks, centralized or delegated document preparation and management, third-party collaboration and risk exposure control; and financial institutions that require secure electronic data exchange with their corporate customers.  @GlobalTrade is a registered trademark of GlobalTrade Corporation.

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