With China joining the World Trade Organisation, the country's domestic financial institutions are ramping up their systems and processes to meet the requirements of international financial market standards. In line with this, Laishang Bank, a leading commercial bank in the Shandong province of China, has deployed an in-country foreign currency payment clearing system developed by NCS China (www.ncs.com.sg).

The system, ECP-PowerClear, was built on NCS' middleware application platform, the Exchange Connect Platform (ECP). ECP-PowerClear acts as an interface between a bank's back-office applications and its front-end or any other system within the organisation. The system, which is developed using Java 2 Enterprise Edition Web technology, can also be easily integrated with other commercial banks' backend systems, thus meeting the requirement for an in-country foreign currency payment clearing service, said Mr Timothy Choon, Director, Financial Services and Insurance, NCS China.

Laishang Bank is a leading commercial bank in the Shandong province of China.

Besides the ECP-PowerClear system, NCS has also developed a whole suite of financial solutions riding on the Exchange Connect Platform. These include the ECP-PowerMessage system and ECP-PowerX system that interface with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) systems. The solutions, which enable banks to operate more efficiently and securely, have been implemented in several banks in the eastern part of China.

"NCS has been pursuing the regional financial services and insurance sector aggressively," said Mr Lim Eng, Chief Executive Officer, NCS Group. It is ranked by Gartner as the number two IT service provider for Singapore's financial services industry and is one of the top 10 IT service providers in China's bank payment and settlement market, according to IDC's latest findings. "NCS will continue to build and develop further competencies to value-add to customers' business and contribute to the financial industry in China and in the regions," he said.

NCS will be showcasing the ECP service platform, as well as its award-winning Mobile Branch Automation (MBA) system at the international financial exhibition, SIBOS, in Vienna from 15-19 September 2008. Earlier this year, the MBA system won the Asian Banker IT Implementation Award at The Asian Banker Summit 2008.