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SCMP Reporter

JOINT Electronic Teller Services (JETCO), is casting its eye to southern China to both improve business relationships and make money.

   At present the company runs more than 1,200 automatic teller machines (ATMs) in Hong Kong and Macau, but according to John Tsang, JETCO's systems manager, there is little room for growth left in the territory.

    'There is minimum room for growth here and we do have a lot of staff, so we're looking to China for the future,' Mr Tsang said.

    Formed in 1982 by a banking consortium which now has 45 members, JETCO runs the ATM network for its members.

   While there is little doubt that expanding the consortium's ATM presence in China will be part of its future work, Mr Tsang believes JETCO's expertise in software design and network management will give it an excellent opportunity to become a solutions' provider to mainland banks.

    'The motivation behind our view of China is primarily that of our shareholders - the banks,' explains Mr Tsang.

   'We're not concentrating on the financial aspect but building relationships for our members with the banks there. On the other hand, if we do make money with our expertise, that's good too.'     JETCO is already involved with two major projects in Guangdong province.

   The Guangdong International Finance Corp, also known as G-Net, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have both been using JETCO's expertise to help them install banking networks.

    'Our major business is as a network operator and that's our major contribution to most of these projects,' Mr Tsang said.

   But he also acknowledged that Jetco's ability to design specialised software for on-line transaction processing systems and sophisticated network management facilities was valuable.

    The ICBC was especially interested in Jetco's software expertise.

   It wanted to link all its branches throughout the province so account holders could access their funds.

   Up until recently all but some of the branches in major cities were cut off from each other.

   'What ICBC wanted from us was the switching software to link all its branches and I believe it will first be used on an ATM system,' Mr Tsang said.

   Because ICBC had already chosen a Tandem computer system, it found ready-to-use suitable software from JETCO that had been working on Tandem machines for nearly a decade.

    The other project has been much more complex and has utilised all of JETCO's skills in running an integrated inter-banking network.

   Guangdong International Finance is a consortium of banks similar in nature to JETCO and was set up to design and run G-Net.

   The People's Bank of China initiated the consortium which is made up of ICBC, Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China and two provincial banks.

   'Because G-Net was a new company with little or no experience in this area they asked JETCO to advise on not just the network design and software but the daily operations - things like how the funds were managed between the members,' Mr Tsang said.

   As a result of using JETCO for operational management advice, G-Net also used its expertise in hardware and software integration.

   At present G-Net runs more than 1,000 ATMs and expects another 1,000 to be on-line by next year.

    G-Net is an especially suitable example of how JETCO intends to work in China.

   While it has acted as a commercial consultancy and a provider of software to the consortium, it also views its links as being beneficial to its own banking members.

       Instead of JETCO setting up an exclusive ATM network in the future in Guangdong, it hopes that the relationship will allow its members to link into G-Net.

    But JETCO has also been looking at how it can improve its marketing skills in China. A contract signed two weeks ago with Unisys for UNIX back-up system was one step towards this.



JETCO looks north for ATM growth