Stockholder Systems Inc., of Norcross, Ga., plans to begin selling a new version of its personal computer-based Fed Wire funds-transfer software in the first quarter of 1995.
The new WireNext software is to have a range of features not currently available on Stockholder's WireNet funds-transfer software, including support for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows graphical user interface, the ability to track and initiate wire transfers from multiple Federal Reserve accounts, and an expanded capability for tracking Reserve account balances.
The most important of the new features is the ability to handle wire transfers from multiple Reserve accounts, said Jan Norton, a Stockholder product specialist.
"That was the big determining factor for us to come out with WireNext," she said.
Acquiring banks often want to use one wire-transfer computer system to send out funds transfers from multiple Reserve accounts. WireNext will be able to support this. But WireNext cannot, since it can handle only one Reserve account.
Transaction Tracking
The expanded Reserve account-balance tracking feature is also an important enhancement.
Banks can use a spreadsheet capability on WireNet to track every transaction affecting their reserve account, securities purchases and automated clearing house transactions.
WireNext will add to this the ability to download balance information from the Fed. so that a bank can compare its tally of its Reserve account balance with the Fed's tally.
This type of comparison could become more important to banks when the Fed begins charging fees for daylight overdrafts in April of next year.
Bank Collaboration
Stockholder is developing WireNext with Worthen National Bank. of Little Rock, Ark., and Compass Bank of Birmingham, Ala., which are among the 40 banks that use WireNet.
Stockholder expects to charge the same license fees for WireNext that it charges for WireNet. These fees range between $80,000 and $150,000, depending upon the configuration of the software.
WireNet is designed for smaller banks that send out between 100 and 2,000 wires per day. WireNext is to be aimed at a larger audience of banks, those that send between 30 and several thousand Fed Wires per day, Ms. Norton added.
The largest money center banks send out tens of thousands of wire transfers daily, she said.
Seeking Buyers
Separately, Stockholder spokesman Jimmy Locklear confirmed recent press reports that Nynex Corp., of White Plains, N.Y., which owns Stockholder Systems, is looking to sell the company as part of strategic decision to exit the software and bank technology businesses.
"We understand they are talking to potential buyers," Mr. Locklear said.
Nynex acquired Stockholder in 1990. Nynex does not disclose Stockholder's revenues, but Mr. Locklear said that published reports pegging the company's annual revenues at between $40 million and $45 million were "pretty close."
He added that Stockholder has 346 employees. The company's biggest product is automated clearing house transaction software called Pep and Pep+ that is used by more than 700 banks, including 250 of the country's 300 largest banks, according to Mr. Locklear.
