The accreditation, which is the ultimate yardstick in information security, is one of the first for an outsourcing service in the UK, identifying BancTec as a safe trading partner.

BS7799 is a recognised industry standard for Information Security Management Systems within an organisation. Certification demonstrates an organisation's formal, ongoing commitment to protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of both customers' and its own information from internal and external threat and identifies the organisation as a safe trading partner.

To achieve certification, BancTec has worked with compliance specialist, Red Island, and had to demonstrate to an external auditor that its security systems complied with the ten aspects of the standard. These include security policy, risk analysis and treatment, access control, physical and environmental security, business continuity and compliance, and the ongoing availability of the site infrastructure.

Peter Jolliffe - Director, BancTec Managed Services said: "Information security is a critical factor to any organisation, especially in the financial sector, when outsourcing their business processes. With BS7799 we have an independent assessment that confirms that we have the processes and procedures in place to adequately protect customers documents and data.

BancTec worked closely throughout the project with Red Island who provided consultancy in order to meet the exacting standard. Just 200 companies in the UK have achieved BS7799 certification.