Amsouth and Stockholder Systems join on risk control.

Amsouth Bancorp. and Stockholder Systems, Inc. announced last week that they had agreed to jointly develop a new risk management system.

Norcross, Ga.-based Stockholder Systems specializes in designing banking software applications to run on International Business Machine Corp. computers.

With the software under development, Birmingham, Ala.-based Amsouth will be able to obtain up-to-the minute balance information at both the account and customer level.

To Run on IBM Mainframes

The software, called the Risk Management and Control System, works by accessing a bank's central balance repository information along with existing accounting applications.

The new system will run on IBM mainframes with the computer company's DB2 data base technology. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 1994, Stockholder Systems officials said. The software company will then market the package to other banks.

Transaction to be |Staged'

With $10.9 billion of assets, Amsouth has 199 banking offices in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, other large regional institutions the ability to monitor risk in an interstate, multi-bank environment.

The software will give account officers and other bank personnel the ability to view all daily activity via computer workstations, thus automating all notifications of problem transactions. It will also provide information on the steps required to approve any transactions in question.

When completed, the Risk Management and Control System will enable Amsouth to "stage" transactions, and then automatically release them when and if the funds become available, Stockholder Systems officials said.

According to Patty Royal, the manager of float management at Amsouth, the system will also help banks better deal with the Federal Reserve's new regulations regarding "daylight" over-drafts, when an institution temporarily transfers out more money money that it has on deposit with the central bank, anticipating incoming funds before the end of the day.

After the regulations go into effect in. April 1994, the Fed will begin charging banks for the use of daylight overdraft funds. Ms. Royal said that with the RMAC system, banks will be able to track funds-transfer activity and subsequently charge customers for the use of overdrawn funds.

Beverly Kennedy, vice president of Stockholder System's Risk Management Group, added that the company is looking for more banking partners to help develop software, particularly in credit risk management.

Ms. Sullivan is a freelance writer based in New York.

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