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Bank of Hawaii has now gone live with both Trade Innovation and Trade Innovation eBanking from Misys Wholesale Banking Systems. The bank is the first to go live using both solutions, combining a browser-based remote corporate access front-end with a comprehensive trade finance back-end system so offering their customers a distinct advantage over their competitors. Tangible business benefits will include improved operating efficiencies and cost reductions, as well as enhanced customer service and convenience.

Founded in 1897, Bank of Hawaii is the largest independent financial institution in Hawaii, offering a range of services to business, private and retail customers in Hawaii, the West Pacific and American Samoa. The bank needed to replace their trade finance system to increase business functionality and reduce operating costs. As the bank has enjoyed a thriving partnership with Misys since 1997, Misys was among the four vendors short-listed for a detailed analysis of their offering. Trade Innovation proved the preferred choice, satisfying both these selection criteria with the added advantage of web access capabilities.

Trade Innovation eBanking provides the bank’s customers with a direct communication link to the bank within a secure environment. The link can be used not only to initiate letters of credit but also to exchange information. This, aligned with Trade Innovation’s straight-through processing capacity, user-friendly interface and front-to-back support for all trade related business applications, sealed the decision.

Within the bank, Trade Innovation eBanking has been re-branded as Bankoh TradeLink and already has its first live customer, Hilo Hattie, a recognised brand in Hawaii, selling a range of Hawaiian lifestyle products online and through a network of stores. Mitch Eddings, assistant controller for Hilo Hattie comments: “We import the vast majority of material we use from a select group of suppliers overseas. The new Bankoh TradeLink product will allow us to manage our letters of credit in a very controlled and efficient manner. We have a distributed operation here at Hilo Hattie and having internet access to all our letters of credit issued by Bank of Hawaii allows each person on our procurement team to track the status of each item individually without physically being in the same location. It also allows us to manage the internal approval process in a more structured way.”

He adds: “Under the old processing environment, we relied on telephones, faxes and a dial-up system to track our LCs. Now we simply provide authority to a Bankoh website for access to Bankoh Trade Link, and monitor outstanding action items.”

Lee Carson, senior vice-president, International Banking Department, Bank of Hawaii comments: “This implementation allows us to add 24/7 trade finance web access to the many convenient services we already offer, reinforcing our commitment to enhancing customer services in our key strategic markets. It also extends our partnership with Misys, a company we know we can rely on, both in terms of IT support issues and future business expansion.”