(Australia) ANZ has struck a joint venture with outsourcing specialist Kaz Group to offer cheque processing technology and services to financial services organisations in Australia and the US.The deal will see two separate companies set up – one in Australia and one in the US –both called Enhanced Processing Technologies, with Kaz holding a 60 percent stake in each.
The companies will offer use of ONE-PASS, a system based on KAZ’s Document & Image Processing System, which supports a single pass process for image enabled ‘Proof of Deposit’ cheque processing.
ANZ chief operations officer David Boyles said the bank had been impressed by improvements and cost savings to ANZ’s cheque clearing processes following an implementation of ONE-PASS within ANZ.
“We consider there is a significant market for this technology. We are now actively promoting EPT to the banking industry in the US and are happy to report that early indications reveal a positive response from the market,” Boyles said.
Kaz Group managing director Peter Kazacos said the venture with ANZ was part of the company’s strategy of entering new markets through joint ventures.
“The combination of KAZ’s expertise in document management solutions and ANZ’s reputation and knowledge of cheque processing will provide a compelling proposition to the financial services market,” he said.