The DirectLine International solution from Jack Henry & Associates now includes access to FX International Payments' competitive foreign exchange (FX) rates and fees, dedicated customer service, and straight through processing of payments.

With the expansion of global trade among businesses of all sizes, financial institutions are facing increased pressure to offer efficient and reliable cross-border payment services. In response, Jack Henry & Associates elected to collaborate with American Express and provide its financial institution clients with access to this automated global payments service.

According to Lin Thomason, information services director for Missouri-based Great Southern Bank, "DirectLine International has provided a new level of sophisticated automation that has materially increased our operating efficiencies and reduced the staff and time requirements for wire operations. DirectLine International has eliminated the vast majority of manual entries and memo posts, and automated wire-related fees, wire settlement, and analysis billing. It enables OFAC custom checks to be run simultaneous with the American Express OFAC checks, which eliminates the need to key wires manually; and the payee creation function supports faster entry of repetitive arrangements. The integration of DirectLine International with our core system streamlines the entire wire process and our ability to quickly research wires through report capture and access to core history and queries. And as we have come to expect, the JHA installation and support teams have been extremely responsive to our needs."

According to Brett Weinhouse, vice president and general manager of FX International Payments, Americas for American Express, "Our collaboration with Jack Henry & Associates strategically expands its extensive payments offering with a reliable and trusted solution for international payment processing. Together, we can provide greater value and impproved efficiency for Jack Henry & Associates' clients."

Tony Wormington, president of Jack Henry & Associates, said, "Payment processing is an important and growing segment of our business and we plan to continually enhance the value and capabilities we provide with new, industry-driven features and functionality. We are excited about the opportunity to work with American Express as our international payments provider and to offer our clients a fully integrated international payments solution."

FX International Payments will initially be integrated with Jack Henry & Associates' SilverLake System, the highly customizable, commercial-focused core banking system. FX International Payments will eventually be integrated with Jack Henry & Associates' CIF 20/20 and Core Director core systems as well.