The multi-faceted partnership includes the licensing and development of a nationalized software solution specifically for the Indian market. Forbes is deploying Alogent's Sierra software suite through a hosted ASP set to meet the needs of the smaller bank community, as well as an in-house solution for larger financial institutions for implementation within their own infrastructure.
In related news, Forbes announced an agreement with Dena Bank, one of India's major financial institutions, as one of the first users.

"Alogent is pleased to combine its position as the leading provider of enterprise payment processing solutions together with Forbes stance as a superior bank automation solutions provider in India," said Brian Geisel, founder and CEO of Alogent. "Alogent's vast experience with other distributed payments technology deployments in the United Kingdom along with Check 21 solution leadership in the U.S. makes us an ideal candidate to quickly gain additional market depth in this rapidly expanding financial services growth sector," he added.

Forbes will combine its solid relationships with key banks in India along with Alogent's industry leading Sierra Xpedite and Xchange software offerings to meet the requirements of the new Check Truncation System (CTS) made by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). By introducing proven technologies into a high growth region, the two organizations are well positioned to achieve sizable market share for straight through check processing from capture and truncation in the retail branch through settlement via the Indian Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS). Market growth opportunities include multiple payment and deposit point of presentment in large public sector banks, large private and foreign banks, as well as small private and foreign institutions.

"As a pioneer in business automation products and a leading player in providing retail banking financial services technology in India, we are pleased to join forces with a deposit automation industry veteran to provide best-of-breed products and services to our financial services customers in the Asian community," said K.C. Mehra, chairman of Forbes Technosys Limited. "Our current and prospective clients will certainly benefit from Alogent's wealth of experience and depth of knowledge in the check truncation arena by implementing proven technologies installed at leading financial institutions in other parts of the world."

Check clearing continues to be the most important retail settlement system in terms of volume, with its share being 81 percent in total transactions recorded during 2003-04 for India.

According to Madhavi Mantha, a senior analyst in Celent's banking group, the desire to streamline and automate payment processing is an essential component of banks' repositioning strategy. "Fewer service related issues, reductions in fraud, lower processing costs and the availability of real-time clearing information are just a few of the potential benefits for banks who are early adopters of deposit automation."

According to Michael Hackney, EVP of business development and international at Alogent, the Indian market is strategic. "This is an important component to our overall international growth strategy," he said. "Our growth in India - combined with our strong presence and current prospects in the UK - positions Alogent well to expand into additional new markets that utilize paper checks as a means of payment collection."