Bermuda law typically requires all local companies to be at least 60% owned by Bermudians. FEDS applied for an exemption from this rule to the Ministry of Finance and on August 21, 2000 was granted a license under section 114B of the Companies Act, 1981 of Bermuda.
FEDS was created by First Ecom and Bank of Bermuda as an independent third-party payment processor licensed by Visa and MasterCard to provide banks and their merchants with the unique FEDS processing solution. This solution includes authorization, electronic data transmission for settlement, full transaction reporting, as well as a wide range of new services for researching, retrieving, and archiving the data associated with the transactions processed on behalf of the banks and their merchants.
"We are very excited that FEDS has finally obtained the required regulatory approval and can be equally owned by Bank of Bermuda and First Ecom while being domiciled in Bermuda," said Harold Hutton, First Ecom President and CEO. "Now that this approval has been granted and all legal requirements have been finalized, we can focus more closely on rolling out the FEDS solution to banks and their merchants worldwide."
"The finalization of the FEDS joint venture further fulfills our commitment with First Ecom to provide banks with a reliable, secure outsourced payment processing solution," said Alan Richardson, Executive Vice President, Retail Clients for the Bank of Bermuda Ltd. "Together we are supplying banks with a viable alternative to building their e-payment systems in-house."
About the Bank of Bermuda
Bank of Bermuda is an international financial institution that provides banking, trust, asset management, fund administration, global custody services, as well as credit card transaction processing for e-commerce, to its corporate, private and retail clients.
Bank of Bermuda is a pioneer in offshore electronic commerce, having been in the e-commerce business since 1995. In addition, Bank of Bermuda has over 25 years experience in the bank card industry, a global network and an excellent IT infrastructure. It has been working closely with the Bank Card Associations in developing guidelines to facilitate onshore e-commerce transactions via the Internet. Bank of Bermuda was one of the first offshore institutions to launch, in November 1999, a multi-currency settlement capability. Merchants and banks that use Bank of Bermuda for their on-line credit card processing have the option to settle their transactions - with a supplier or client - in a choice of eight different currencies.
Founded in 1889, its global headquarters are in Bermuda, and it has offices or subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Dublin, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, New York, New Zealand, and Singapore. It has a representative office in Bahrain.
The Bank is listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange. Bank of Bermuda has net assets of $10.4 billion (unaudited as at 30 June 2000) and in excess of $80 billion in assets under administration.
Further information on Bank of Bermuda is located on the Internet at www.bankofbermuda.com.
About First Ecom
As a global provider of electronic payment processing, First Ecom provides secure, easy-to-implement and low-cost online payment processing services to banks and their merchants worldwide. Through strategic partnerships with banks, ISPs, e-commerce product suppliers, system integrators and storefront solution providers, First Ecom will process credit card transactions made over the Internet in multiple currencies, either domestically or offshore in a tax-neutral jurisdiction.
For more information, visit www.firstecom.com or contact First Ecom at +(852) 2801-5181 or by e-mail at info@firstecom.com.
About First Ecommerce Data Services Limited (FEDS)
A joint venture between First Ecom.com Inc. and the Bank of Bermuda, FEDS is an independent third party processor. FEDS will work with any financial institution anywhere in the world to provide the institution and its merchants with a multi-currency, advanced electronic payment processing solution. The FEDS Processing Solution features online and batch transactions processing for credit and debit cards as well as authorization, electronic data transmission for settlement and full transaction reporting.
For more information, visit www.fedsinternational.com or contact FEDS at +(441) 296-FEDS (3337).
Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's SEC filings, which contain additional discussion about those factors which could cause actual results to differ from management's expectations.