First Atlantic Commerce service uniterrupted by Hurricane Florence

It's "Business As Usual" for First Atlantic Commerce customers as Hurricane Florence storms past Bermuda.

September 12, 2006 – As Bermuda continues to assess and clean up the damage brought to the Island by Hurricane Florence on September 11th, it has been business as usual for Bermuda-based global Internet payment services provider First Atlantic Commerce Limited (FAC).

The small Island, 750 miles off the coast of North Carolina, was hit by category 1 Hurricane Florence as the storm veered away from the US east coast, bringing strong winds, high seas and power outages as the eye passed within 51 nautical miles.

While most businesses were shut for the day to allow staff to stay home and out of harm’s way, FAC continued to offer payment processing services to Internet-based customers around the world with its team performing ongoing, cohesive, real-time systems monitoring remotely from various points across the Island.

“A common concern of our clients is that we are on an island in danger of being hit by a hurricane, causing potential outages for substantial periods of time,” says Mrs Glyn Hoskins-Turner, Director, International Business Development of FAC. 

“Hurricane Florence was a true test of our systems and our ability to continue functioning, without interruption, is a testament to FAC’s team, its skills and forward planning, our telecommunications infrastructure, processing network and service reliance.”

FAC is connected directly to the International Internet backbone taking service directly offshore.  This means that any local telecommunication service interruptions experienced on the island are bypassed, reducing the danger of FAC’s business being powered down. 

In an industry that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a service outage can cause extensive damage to participating businesses.  “Losing a connection for even a short period of time can be very costly to these companies, “ says Glyn.  “As an on-line credit card transaction-processing provider, it is our responsibility to implement the best infrastructures available today to ensure continued service and support ” she says.

For the people of Bermuda, millions of dollars damage was estimated as a result of the high sea surge and winds of 70 knots, with gusts to 85 knots.

Florence was the second largest storm to hit Bermuda in the past three years.  On September 5th, 2003, Hurricane Fabian, a category 3 storm packing sustained winds of 100 knots, with gusts to 120 knots smashed into Bermuda causing loss of life and huge damage.  “FAC’s payment processing systems also remained fully functional during Hurricane Fabian,” says Glyn.

“Fortunately there were no injuries during Hurricane Florence,” says Glyn.  “However, it is best to be prepared for the worst and our customers can have the assurance that hurricanes, while a threat to Bermuda, are not a danger to the continued service they receive from FAC.”

The official hurricane season begins on May 1st and ends on October 31st. 

About First Atlantic Commerce

Headquartered in Bermuda, and established in 1998 to create secure card-based payment solutions for e-businesses, FAC provides powerful technology designed to work with most merchant platforms, including Microsoft®, UNIX, and LINUX platforms.  FAC’s cGate® technology offers service, flexibility and security to adapt to many business and bank acquirer requirements. Business solutions such as 3-D Secure™ Payer Authentication, Virtual Corporations and offshore multi-currency payment solutions are available in various offshore jurisdictions. 

Media Contacts
We welcome approaches from the world's media. To arrange a time to talk, please contact:

Glyn Hoskins-Turner

Director, International Business Development

Tel: + 441 294 4624

E-mail: ghoskinsturner@fac.bm

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