NEW ORLEANS - Whitney National Bank plans to add an online trade-finance interface that will allow its corporate clients to apply for letters of credit over the Internet, an executive says.
The banking subsidiary of the $7.1 billion-asset Whitney Holding Corp. has licensed AMS Tradeline software from American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., said Thomas Pawlyshyn, a vice president in the bank's international department.
Whitney has offered trade finance for decades to its corporate clients, and the international department already had an automated system for use by employees, Mr. Pawlyshyn said in an interview. But it did not offer a Web front-end that would let clients apply for letters of credit or perform similar functions online.
"It wasn't something that was called for here," Mr. Pawlyshyn said. "The customer base didn't push for it."
As Whitney expanded in recent years into markets such as Texas and Florida, allowing customers to apply for letters of credit online became a selling point, Mr. Pawlyshyn said. Texas is a particularly strong market for letters of credit, and Whitney's competitors there offer online trade finance, he said. "We can't go into that market without it."
Also, with businesses of all sizes increasingly computerizing their finance operations, "we don't have the option not to offer it in the future," he said.
The software is being installed now on the bank's internal computer network, and Whitney plans to start letting customers applying for letters online around September 1, Mr. Pawlyshyn said.
