Jenny Hannah has spent $80,000 of her own money in the past year researching and launching her e-commerce lingerie site, but she never imagined finding a New Zealand bank to support her internet transactions would be so difficult.

The 26-year-old runs two businesses in Auckland - Jennifer Ann Lingerie and the advertising agency Millennium Advertising - and has dealt with banks frequently, but was surprised to find them so "behind the times" in terms of their ability to handle e-commerce transactions.

"I spent about a week going around all of the banks, I went to see them, I phoned them, I got 0800 numbers, I did everything you could possibly think of and basically they all came back to me and said, 'sorry, we can't help you'."

She said the main problem was that Jennifer Ann Lingerie (www.jenniferann.co.nz) wanted to trade in US dollars and New Zealand banks were not set up to accommodate credit card transactions in foreign currencies.

Jenny Hannah says that for the large American market, sales had to be in US dollars as Americans did not want NZ currency showing up on their credit card statements.

So with the help of web site designers Nadara, she found a US company, Planet Payment (www.planetpayment.com), which could provide the level of service an international internet business requires.

It provided a special software package that conducts all transactions in US dollars and credits the Jennifer Ann account in New Zealand directly in NZ dollars. The program also allows the site to offer a currency converter that changes prices on the site to the currency the visitor selects with exchange rates that are constantly updated.

Jenny Hannah said Planet Payment also provided a level of fraud control and customer service that did not exist in New Zealand.

The fact that she had to go offshore disappointed her as she wanted to support New Zealand banks, "but it was just out of their league, they had no idea what we were talking about."

Jenny Hannah launched Jennifer Ann Lingerie after seeing a niche in the internet market. There was only one large competitor, a US-based catalogue company.

With more than 350 pages, 1500 images, and a selection of lingerie from brands such as Fayreform, Berlei, Vanity Fair and Davenport, she claims Jennifer Ann is the world's largest online lingerie store.

The site has been up on the internet for a month now, generating between 3000 and 4000 visitors per week. Jenny Hannah said the company has processed "hundreds of orders" from New Zealand, the US, Australia, Britain and Europe.

The company does not keep any stock in its office, but processes orders as they come in, sending them daily to the lingerie companies in New Zealand. The site is registered in the US so it has a .com address, which she says is vital in the US market. Most Americans did not want to buy from a foreign site.

The site features a "friend to friend" e-mail service that enables people to send their measurements and preferences to others, and a "virtual assistant" who helps in product searches and provides information about fitting, sizes, lingerie care and taking measurements.