Tech Bytes: Small Chicago Bank Hires EDS for Home Banking

PLANO, Tex. - A small Chicago bank has sign up with a joint venture led by Electronic Data Systems Corp. for home banking and bill payment services, EDS said.

River Forest Bancorp is one of a handful of financial institutions that have agreed to work with Interactive Transaction Partners, a home banking venture half-owned and mostly run by EDS, a unit of General Motors Corp.

The $2 billion-asset bank will offer remote financial services through Interactive to its own employees later this month and to its customers by the first quarter of 1996.

Interactive, which is also co-owned by France Telecom and US West, is developing broad-based home banking products and services that would work across a variety of remote platforms. Financial institutions would be able to select which services they want to offer.

River Forest Bancorp plans to provide its customers with account access and bill payment via personal computer and touch-tone telephone.

"If you're going to get into home banking, you want to make sure it's with a product your customers will actually be able to and want to use," said David H. Johnson 3d, an executive vice president at River Forest. "Because ITP's screens and graphics look a lot like today's most popular financial software packages, our customers should be able to understand and use the program quickly and easily."

River Forest has also signed on with EDS Internet Financial Services, which helps banks set up sites to advertise and communicate on the Internet.

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