[Webfunds-users] PR: Recent Intertrader and Systemics alliance brings forth digital dollar from Hansa Bank

Thu, 15 Mar 2001 18:43:15 +0000

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Edinburgh (UK), Anguilla (British West Indies), 15th March 2001:

RECENT INTERTRADER AND SYSTEMICS
ALLIANCE BRINGS FORTH DIGITAL DOLLAR
FROM HANSA BANK

Rachel Willmer, CEO of Intertrader Ltd (Edinburgh, UK), today became
the first purchaser of the new digital dollar issued by Hansa Bank
(Anguilla, British West Indies).

This event marks the launch of the first online dollar to be based on
Systemics' Ricardo system, which is soon to be launched as a fully
supported payment method within the Intertrader CashBox payment
management system.

Hansa Bank is the only offshore bank in Anguilla, a noted centre
for financial cryptography.  Hansa has been a consistent supporter
of the conferences of the same name, held annually in the Caribbean.

The Hansa Bank dollar is backed 100% by dollars held in a reserve
account at Hansa Bank, constructed in this way to eliminate financial
and credit risks. For every digital dollar issued, the Ricardian
contract requires the reserves to match that with a dollar on account
at the bank.  "This adds no risk to the bank's operations," said
Lynwood Bell, Chairman of Hansa Bank and Hansa.net Global Commerce,
Inc.  "Holding reserves that are one to one with the issued instrument
does more to reduce systemic risk in financial systems than any other
innovation."

Lynwood Bell went on to say: "This represents an important step forward in
the field of online payments. Hansa Bank and Hansa.net Global Commerce, Inc.
are dedicated to incubating and accelerating technology in new microfinance
and digital trading fields. Having digital dollars will add an important
trading facility in many B2B applications."

Rachel Willmer, CEO of Intertrader (Edinburgh, UK), said "I am
delighted that the 'Hansa Bank dollar' is now a reality.  The CashBox
suite of supported payment instruments will soon be enlarged to offer
the dollar and other Ricardian contracts, alongside Mondex and e-gold,
to enable easy usage of digital dollars in the online retail sector."

Ian Grigg, CEO of Systemics, added: "Anguilla is a 'technology campus'
for innovations like ours.  We needed to meld our governance model
into that of a forward thinking bank.  We could only have done that
with an institution like Hansa who already model themselves on the
evolving Internet economy."

The three companies involved all recognise that building the new
economy is about partnering.  "It's a mistake to think you can build a
financial system with just one company, or even an alliance of similar
companies.  Before we can build in the reliability needed to eliminate
risk, we must have an interlocking network of diverse institutions,
working together in separate roles, but all separately owned and
governed" said Ian Grigg.

For more information, please contact :

Lynwood S. Bell
Hansa Bank and Hansa Global Commerce Inc
Email:	hansa@attglobal.net
Tel:	+1 (264) 497-3800
Fax:	+1 (264) 497-3801

Ian Grigg
Systemics Inc
Email:	  iang@systemics.com

Rachel Willmer
Intertrader Ltd
5 John's Place
Edinburgh EH6 7EW
U.K.
Tel:	+44 (0) 131 553 0380
Fax:	+44 (0) 131 553 0381
Email:	rachel@intertrader.com
Web:    http://www.intertrader.com

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NOTES FOR EDITOR

Hansa Bank
----------

Hansa Bank & Trust Company Limited was founded in 1984. Its technology
incubator/accelerator, Hansa.net Global Commerce, Inc. became publicly
traded in 1985 and focuses in the areas of e-commerce location
optimization, international trade technology and the marketing of
Internet technologies.  Hansa.net and Hansa Bank are part of the
Span-Hansa Group comprised of ten organizations doing business in as
many international locations. The Group's operations also include
financing intellectual property, public stock offerings, acquisitions
and mergers, and international marketing.  Information on the
Span-Hansa Group and other strategic partners can be found on the
Company's Internet home page http://www.hansa.net

For more information about Hansa Bank or Hansa.net Global Commerce
Inc., please contact :

Lynwood S. Bell
<hansa@attglobal.net>
Tel: +1 (264) 497-3800
Fax: +1 (264) 497-3801

Intertrader Ltd
---------------

Intertrader is a technology company specialising in e-payments
middleware and applications. Its flagship product is the Intertrader
CashBox payment management system.

Intertrader have recently released Version 2 of the Intertrader CashBox,
which delivers a complete value acquisition solution for payment
service providers wishing to acquire Mondex and E-gold value. Version
1 of the CashBox system was used by Bank of Scotland in 1999 in a
successful pilot of a pay-for-use Internet-access system.

Intertrader recently announced a strategic alliance with Systemics for
joint marketing of their combined systems worldwide. The integration of
Systemics' Ricardo financial trading products with Intertrader's CashBox
payment management system provides a complete solution for companies
wishing to issue financial instruments such as currencies, bonds or shares.

As a result of this alliance, Intertrader will implement support for
Systemics SOX protocol within the Intertrader CashBox system to enable
full integration with the Ricardo currency issuer and trading market
products and will develop an online exchange application to manage the
transfer of value between SOX-enabled currencies and others supported
by the CashBox system.

Based in Edinburgh, UK, Intertrader was founded in 1995 by Rachel
Willmer, the CEO. Intertrader has been recognised as a pioneer in the
field of e-payments, numbering amongst its customers Mondex
International, Beenz.com and Bank of Scotland. In 1998, it was chosen
for the 1998 Scottish Foresight award from the UK Department of Trade
and Industry for its "exceptional vision in developing and applying
new technology and opening new market opportunities".

Intertrader is a founder sponsor of EFCE, the premier conference for
practical financial cryptography engineering.  <http://www.efce.net/>

For more information about Intertrader, please contact:

Rachel Willmer, CEO
<rachel@intertrader.com>

Intertrader Ltd
5 Johns Place
Edinburgh
EH6 7EW

Tel: +44 (0) 131 553 0380
Fax: +44 (0) 131 553 0381
WWW: <http://www.intertrader.com>

Systemics Inc
-------------

Systemics Inc is a technology company specialising in e-payments and
financial cryptography. Its flagship product range is the Ricardo
group of financial cryptography products, which allows for online
assets to be created and traded, either directly or on a market.

  - the Ricardo Issuance Server, a platform for issuing online
    currencies, shares, bonds and other financial instruments.

  - the Ricardo Exchange Server, a platform for delivering RTGS (T+0)
    trades across the Internet.

  - SOX, a protocol for reliable payments and trade instructions
    designed for Internet trading.

The Ricardo architecture was originally designed in 1995-1996 and was
launched into live usage with the creation of the DigiGold currency,
issued by DigiGold Ltd in 1999. (See http://www.digigold.net for more
details). This new currency issue represents the first dollar-denominated 
Ricardo currency.

Systemics was instrumental in creating the Cryptix Development Team
<http://www.cryptix.org>, a group producing the popular open source
strong crypto package for Java.  Systemics is currently forming a new
open source group based around the WebFunds application, a Java client
for accessing payments and trading on the net via the Ricardo servers.

Systemics is a founder sponsor of EFCE, the premier conference for
practical financial cryptography engineering.  <http://www.efce.net/>

For more information about Systemics, please contact:
Ian Grigg, CEO
<iang@systemics.com>

END

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