The new service will allow firms such as trust and company administration companies to free up resources currently required to provide financial information to customers by giving the customers secure online access to account information. Customers will be able to use the service to view accounts and transactions in any currency, watch incoming payments as they arrive, and authorise sterling, foreign and inter-account payments.

RBSI said that the service will be able to be customised to the needs of individual companies and was specifically designed to free up time for other finance companies to allow them to get on with servicing their own customers' needs.

The new system has been developed by RBSI in conjunction with IBM at a cost of £20 million and has been three years in the planning. It has been well received by industry experts and is the first to receive a security seal of approval from leading IT industry security assessor Admiral.

The new service is also expected to reduce the demands of the Island's finance industry for more staff. Jersey Senator Horsfall said that the system would enable the bank and its financial services clients to meet Jersey's objectives of 'business growth without people growth' and that 'Jersey's future is inextricably tied in to this type of development and to further developments in information technology in general.'

A recent study by investment analysts Goldman Sachs shows that business-to-business e-commerce is set to grow rapidly over the next five years, from £68 billion this year to £1,500 billion by 2004, and Jersey sees itself as having a key role in facilitating this growth.