BCE Downsizes U.S. Operations

BCE Emergis plans to downsize its Greensboro, N.C., office by this October, but denies reports it will exit the U.S. by the end of the year, MortgageWire has learned."We've announced to our employees in the Greensboro office that we are in the process of evaluating our invoicing product to leverage it as part of a broader payment solution," said Mark Boutet, vice president of communications at BCE. "As such, we're in the process of centralizing some development functions out of Montreal [BCE's corporate headquarters], where we have a core team of developers. We expect to accomplish this goal over a transition period bringing us up to October of '04." The number of people to be laid off was not disclosed as of MW's deadline. BCE said it plans to retain a Greensboro presence beyond October, but on a smaller scale. However, a credible industry source said BCE is expected to exit the U.S. market, perhaps as early as the close of this year. Nonetheless, BCE operates two other offices in the U.S., a sales office in Denver and an office in McLean, Va., where the company runs its e-lending product, which will both remain at full capacity in preparation for the commercial rollout of the company's e-lending product this May. "We are absolutely committed to the e-lending market in the U.S. and have approximately 70 employees in the McLean office," said Mr. Boutet. BCE's products enable lenders to make electronic transactions involving claims, loans, and payment processing. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.emergis.com.