Chemical's wire mergers goes smoothly.

On the first business day after officially merging its lead bank with Manufacturers Trust Co., Chemical Banking Corp. closed its massive funds transfer systems on time.

Both Fed Wire and Chips, the Clearing House Interbank Payments System, operated without a hitch on Monday after a weekend consolidation of back-office systems.

"Everything went very smoothly - Chemical handled it very well," said John F. Lee, president of the New York Clearing House Association, which runs Chips.

On Monday, Chemical processed what would have been an average volume for the combined banks - 72,000 transactions totaling $395 billion. There was a slightly higher higher volume of international payments and instructions than usual, said Jonathan L. Rounds, executive vice president at Chemical, and chief operating officer of GeoServe, the Chemical unit that handles funds transfer operations.

The bank completed overnight processing on its letter-of-credit system, also converted to a single platform over the weekend.

About 70 customers in London experienced delays of up to two hours in their cash-management information and reporting service, Mr. Rounds said. London, which had its own deposit accounting systems, also converted to a single software platform over the weekend.

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