Building the Cash Marketplace in Australia

"Big Banks Join to Run Cash Pool" is how The Melbourne Age reported the announcement of Cash Services Australia, pty (CSA) on April 2, 2001. "ANZ, Commonwealth, and Westpac banks join forces in a $75 million venture to streamline the distribution of notes and coins around their national networks."

CSA, a subsidiary of Carreker Corporation with an Advisory Group made up of the three banks, is due to "go live" with first-stage functionality later this year. Another eight banks are considering joining CSA.

CSA's formation was prompted by two worldwide banking challenges: the growing cost and complexity of cash supply chain functions and the changing cash processing role of central banks. In Australia for example, the Reserve Bank is withdrawing as the central currency pool provider, shifting that responsibility to the banks. That decision propelled the three banks to collaborate on a cash handling solution. They engaged Carreker to help facilitate its design, build the business case, deliver key technologies, and manage the implementation.

Said Geoff Allen, senior executive, International and Support Operations, Commonwealth Bank and a member of Cash Services Australia's Advisory Group, "It didn't take long for us to see that by combining our separate activities and volumes and deploying new technologies, we could substantially reduce our costs and offer our customers a higher level of service."

As the group looked at staging CSA's functionality, one cash supply function stood out as offering sizeable savings and limited complexity: armoured transportation.

The Melbourne Age quoted Carreker senior vice president Jim McHale saying, "CSAcan give the armoured carriers more work in a tighter geographic area, which will help cut down on their drive time…plus we will be able to process their deposit and cash-processing needs in centralized locations."

In Australia, armoured transportation providers perform another key function, ATM first-line maintenance. So this function, along with armoured transportation, were selected as the lynchpins of CSA's early offerings.

CSA has also contracted with Carreker to develop the technology and business process for note pool exchange among the Australian banks, filling the role formerly performed by the central bank.

"A collaborative effort that results in this kind of technology-enabled infrastructure for boosting bank profits is precisely the innovation Carreker is primed to deliver," said Mike Hansen, Carreker's executive vice president, managing director of Global Technology Solutions. "Our best answers come when we arrive at them in partnership with the banks, share the risk, and make fresh use of our enabling applications."

In addition to Geoff Allen, the other members of the CSA Advisory Group are:

Damian Banks, head of Service Architecture & Execution Business Products for Westpac Banking Corporation

Harry Ulpen, national manager, Operational Services for ANZ.

For more information, contact Brian Evetts at bevetts@carreker.com