BankWest has extended its business process outsourcing contract with Unisys Payment Services Limited (UPSL) by another five years.
BankWest first inked an outsourcing contract with UPSL back in 1999 and under the terms of the deal UPSL will provide outsourced cheque processing and image archiving services to BankWest.
Headquarted in Perth, BankWest handles about one quarter of all bank advances and deposits in Western Australia and serves nearly 660,000 customers through a network of branches, neighbourhood banks, agencies and electronic banking facilities, as well as 24-hour telephone and Internet banking services.
The outsourcing of back-office processes to UPSL enables BankWest to divert a greater proportion of internal IT and management resources to areas of its business that deliver revenue growth and competitive advantage.
Unisys Australia managing director Mike Ettling said the deal demonstrates the success of the payment utility concept and the drive to deliver a sustainable BPO business model.
Unisys says it operates Australia's largest cheque archive, which handles 37 percent of Australia's total cheque volume with a daily clearing value of about $2 billion, and provides financial transaction processing, lockbox, clearing and settlement services to institutions in financial services and other industry sectors.