The new president of Bermuda Commercial Bank has declared that the company's e-banking platform is finally up and running.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette, Timothy Ulrich said that the platform, which was due to go live in January 2000, was currently being successfully used by over 80 high-end clients using over 100 accounts.

And it is to be extended to the entire customer base at the bank in the autumn - but declined to give a date for the official launch.

And he offered no apologies for the bank's launch date putting back the e-platform - stating the bank was proud of having made sure that the system was fully secure and functioning properly before going live.

Mr. Ulrich, who was appointed president and chief operating officer at the bank on Monday, said in the first interview the bank has given in over a year and a half, that the bank planned to offer more services to clients with the e-banking system, including on-line trust formations, on-line company formations and the formations of e-suites.

And he painted a rosy future with the use of e-banking for Bermuda's third largest bank which deals only with corporate customers.

Mr. Ulrich said that the company had invested in the state-of-the-art system as an integral part of the future of the business.

"We believe that electronic banking services are essential to the survival of the banks," he said. "I am not sure of the time-scale, but in three to five years from now banks will not be able to compete without having on-line financial services."

BCB has repeatedly set launch dates for its e-banking platform, but failed to meet the deadlines.

The bank first announced in December 1999 that the e-banking site would be up and running in January 2000.

But citing "security issues", the bank time and time put off the launch date.

When asked about the length of time it has taken for the site to become fully functional, Mr. Ulrich said: "We are proud of the fact that it took a lot longer."

He said that the bank had to be sure that the system was secure and that it was suitable for their users.

He said: "We are involved in very exciting projects that provide for on-line, electronic, fully automated delivery of a whole spectrum of banking and financial services that BCB provides.

"In fact in April this year we launched a pilot programme of e-banking we have approximately 81 clients who have almost 100 different accounts for conducting their banking on-line.

"We want to expand the e-banking to include an e-invest facility. And to create this e-invest we have created a strategic alliance with Barclays Global Investment which is the investment management arm of Barclays Bank and in order to implement that we incorporated on August 14 a mutual fund in Bermuda called BCB Offshore Investment Fund Ltd.."

He said that this fund will offer clients 14 different share classes which they can invest. Three money market funds are denominated in US dollars, pound sterling and Euro.

There are also six global equity indexes - with funds in the US and UK, plus Europe (without UK), Japan and Pacific (without Japan) as well as world-wide fund.

They will also have five fixed income funds choices, in dollars, euro and pound sterling.

Mr. Ulrich said BCB offshore investment fund has been organised as a feeder fund, investments in their mutual funds feed into or are invested into corresponding money market equity index and fixed income funds managed by Barclays Global Investment Fund.

"It is very exciting for us, the launch of that service," he said. "We are further working on expanding the e-banking platform to actually include automating the whole line of financial services we provide and will include on-line trust formations, on-line company formations, the formations of e-suites."

Caption: By the end of the year the Bermuda Commercial Bank will be moving into its new headquarters on Victoria Street.