With a flurry of new agreements signed in the first and second quarters of 2005, San Francisco-headquartered BankServ has exceeded 50 banks using its Global Funds Exchange Network (GFXN) Service Bureau technology as a gateway to the Federal Reserve wire transfer system.
During this same time period, BankServ also signed two additional customers as software license users of GFX.
The addition of clients including Heritage Bank of Commerce, Great Florida Bank, Biltmore Bank of Arizona, First Niagara Bank, Renasant Bank, Hancock Bank, BBU Bank, and RG Crown Bank, said President and CEO David F. Kvederis, is proof that BankServ's sophisticated Fed wire service bureau network has become accepted as the standard for mid-sized and regional banks to automate their Fed wire transfer operations.
"We believe the reason for the continued strong and steady growth in business is that the economic advantages to banks of using outsourced Fed wire transfer technology are now fully proven and compelling," Kvederis said. "It's been possible to link up with the Fed wire system in a number of ways, but by eliminating most of the data center and technology overhead, we believe we've hit on something the financial industry has been looking for. You won't find this system anywhere else in America today."
Central to the success of the service bureau approach is its ability to concentrate under one roof the hardware, software and technical expertise needed to continually improve and keep the system state-of-the-art. The result, Kvederis said, is that banks can focus on their operations and customers rather than constantly reinvesting in technology.
"Using the traditional approach, each bank would have to buy its own hardware and software to connect to the Fed wire system. Any time they needed to upgrade their network, it takes technology resources, and it could mean buying new equipment. The difference with BankServ is that all the software runs on our central data center. When we make an update at our data center, it's as if you'd upgraded your network for free, without having to install a thing."
BankServ's centralized approach has also resulted in a minimum of downtime and technical glitches. While local power outages and equipment malfunctions have the ability to disrupt many banks' data centers today, BankServ's data center is built to ensure year-round functionality 24 hours a day. Housed in a security-intensive, climate-controlled facility and connected to redundant Uninterruptible Power Supplies, the main data center in Las Vegas, or its mirror-image backup in Grass Valley California, are always up and running.
Heritage Bank of Commerce, based in San Jose, California, chose the GFXN Service Bureau because it meant they would not have to support the necessary hardware platforms and networks in-house, saving them considerable costs in their Information Technology department. The $1 billion institution also praised BankServ's reputation for service. Suzanne Zierman, Sr. Vice President and Banking Operations Manager, reports that BankServ has the same philosophy of customer service as Heritage. "We were looking for the same dedication to high-quality service that we provide to our customers," says Zierman. "That's the kind of service that we like to give to our clients."