Bankers Trust Financial Services Information Systems Corp. has been a one-horse town for too long, and David Hinds is the new sheriff who intends to change all that.
Since its founding in 1987, the service company arm of Bankers Trust New York Corp. has maintained a healthy, if not expansive, business by peddling the bank's own Remos foreign exchange and money market software, largely to big .global banking concerns. But after six years and 60 software customers, the unit last year took on a fresher, broader approach to its market, largely because of the appointment in July 1993 of Mr. Hinds as managing director.
Under Mr. Hinds, a 24-year veteran of-Bankers Trust, the service division has already introduced its own audit system, government securities settlement, and most recently its trust accounting products to other financial institutions.
Although many of the division's customers are also Bankers Trust's toughest competitors, Mr. Hinds has seen the Bankers. Trust name and backing as more of a help than a hindrance.
"It's no secret that Bankers Trust has achieved an excellent reputation in its foreign exchange and trading technology," Mr. Hinds said, ,"Clients want. to use the products that Bankers Trust uses in the execution of its own business."
The service company derives the best from both worlds, as Mr. Hinds sees it. It can cash in on the cachet and the stability of the Bankers Trust moniker, while maintaining the flexibility of a small, independent service company that has its own sales staff and strategic focus.
"Many buyers worry about the long-term viability of their provider," he added.
Although it may appear self-defeating to provide its technology to other financial institutions, Bankers Trust executives view their product application as a thing that may be imitated without being completely duplicated.
The company removes any proprietary functions, unique to Bankers Trust's own operation and business strategy, from an in-house product before marketing it to the competition.
