Australia's sixth largest bank, Suncorp, has extended its outsourcing agreement for payment processing with Unisys Payment Service Ltd by two years.

The extension includes additional services to archive cheque and related document images. Suncorp has outsourced business-critical payment processes to UPSL since 1995. The addition of image archive services means that all UPSL clients are using its cheque image archive.

Unisys performs core business functions for Suncorp including processing payroll and direct debit operations. The outsourcing of payment processes to Unisys benefits Suncorp by enabling it to reduce the cost associated with the implementation and maintenance of payment systems and the related networking systems that connect with other institutions.

Suncorp customer operations general manager Rob Howe said UPSL is able to lower the unit costs for payments by aggregating the total volume of transactions from multiple clients.

Unisys A/NZ managing director Mike Ettling said the company operates Australia's largest cheque archive handling 37 per cent of the nation's total cheque volume with a daily clearing value of about $2 billion.