Bermuda-based Full Service Trade System, is now available in 29 countries.

The system will be available to companies for a three-month promotional period during which the software and transactions will be free of charge, the company announced this week.

Trading partners and intermediaries use TradeCard to exchange information and funds over a secure network using standard formats. Once the terms of the agreement have been met, the software programme allows for the release of funds, which must be obtained under a separate line of credit.

The system has the backing World Trade Centres Association (WTCA), an international non-profit association which promotes cross-border trade. Based at the World Trade Centre in New York, WTCA was founded in 1970 and has a membership base of 500,000 companies worldwide.

Full Service now has 30 shareholders. NationsBank Corp., the third largest bank in the US, has become the first funding institution to provide credit to companies through the TradeCard system.

"TradeCard will become the standard way to trade by the year 2000,'' Full Service Trade System chairman and WTCA president Guy Tozzoli claimed yesterday.

"Technology has helped business become more profitable in so many areas. But until now trade has relied on old-fashioned, highly complicated, paper trails.

TradeCard's technology makes trade simple and quick.'' Full Service estimates TradeCard will allow parties to complete an electronic trade within one hour, 80 percent faster than paper-based methods.

"One of the many benefits that TradeCard offers compared with a conventional trade transaction is that the banks are removed from the paper flow and trade negotiation,'' a company spokesman said.

"The importer is dealing directly with the exporter. They are directly in control, and no paper documents requiring review are exchanged between the funding bank, the importer, the exporter and the advising bank.'' The company will also offer financing, cargo inspection, insurance, freight consolidation, forwarding, cash flow and supply chain management as part of its services.

With the eventual rollout of TradeCard, Full Service will also offer an electronic data interchange (EDI) format designed for large companies which have invested in that type of system.

Financial institutions, freight forwarders, importers and exporters will be linked via a secure private communications network mainly provided by GE Information Services.

Full Service is also in negotiations with Paris-based Societe Francaise de Factoring about joining the system. Bank of America has reportedly reviewed the system but as of yet has made no commitment.

GE Information Services, which has signed an agreement to become a part-owner of TradeCard, has a base of 40,000 clients including major importers such as Kmart Corp.

Full Service chief financial officer Anthony Nagel projects that the company can reach a volume of up to 1.5 million trades a year in five years time, a small but significant chunk of the $3 trillion worth of international trade a year currently being done by letter of credit.