Judged by:

Chris Skinner, CEO, Balatro, and co-founder,Shaping Tomorrow (chairman of judging panel)

Dan Barnes, financial systems editor, The Banker

PJ Digiammarino, head of global IT customer services, Barclays Capital

Bob Fuller, head of IT strategy, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein

Roberto Rivera, Intelligent Growth

Ralph Silva, senior analyst, TowerGroup Europe

Suresh Viswanathan, senior vice-president, Citigroup

BACK-OFFICE TECHNOLOGY

Winner – Citigroup

STP is much discussed but rarely achieved. Our panel regarded the Citigroup Asset Manager Solution for Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) as one instance of the product delivering as it should. The SMA business is still growing rapidly despite a significantly limited supply to meet the demand across the industry. The tale of legacy systems and manual processes is common across financial services but for asset managers, such operational inefficiencies are having a direct impact on business. Citigroup has built an end-to-end solution for the process from account opening to reconciliation to solve this. Using XML technology, the system is component-based, allowing for greater customisation. This is more convenience for clients and so genuinely assists their business.

Highly commended – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein was praised for its Java-based ops tracker application. It was felt that the bank had demonstrated genuine customer-centricity in reducing the costs for trade matching and giving clients access to the operational status of their trades across a broad range of products – cash equities, fixed income, exchange traded derivatives, FX/MM, prime brokerage and over-the-counter equity derivatives. The ability to put a figure on the savings generated for the bank by ops tracker also demonstrated the real value of the product for both sides. The judges concluded that it was a win-win solution.

CASH MANAGEMENT

Winner – Misys

The high level of competitiveness in today’s cash management business requires equally high functionality from a bank’s systems. Through a customer case study, Misys demonstrated that its system enabled a bank to hold on to key corporate accounts while offering new products and services, generating a significant ROI. The bank in question oversaw the development of the cash management application, with staff from the business and the technical side defining requirements and Misys reviewing and making necessary adjustments. Further definition of specific requirements could be made via a browser, thanks to the service-oriented architecture used. The system offers many benefits to the bank’s customers, such as: multi-level group accounting; multi-level zero balancing/sweeping and automatic generation; and routing and management of messages to the bank and its customers – whether a request for transfer (MT101) or single customer credit transfer (MT103) with additional option to generate MT202 cover messages. The practical benefits to both banks and corporate customers were seen as a winning combination.

Highly commended – CashTech

For a new entrant in the cash management arena, things must be right from the outset. CashTech deployed its CashIn solution for one bank in precisely these circumstances. To provide a complete range of services in a tight timeframe is not easy and in this instance the challenge was increased as the bank had no branches and wished to offer cash management via its nationwide coordinator network. This required a system at each location linking to a central database held by the bank. The speed with which implementation was achieved, including integration to existing systems, testing and customisation, was well received and worthy of commendation.

BUY-SIDE TECHNOLOGY

Winner – Application Networks

JRisk, Application Networks’ application framework, immediately struck our judges as outstanding through its use of an ASP model for service provision to the buy-side, reducing the support and infrastructure costs such a system might otherwise require. Designed to analyse trading risk on an intra-day basis, P&L, reporting to highlight and analyse successful strategies, review positions and limits across rates, fixed income, credit, equity and FX, Application Networks demonstrated strong customer support for its product. The panel saw further innovation in its use of a service-based, distributed architecture. It provides an application that could gain further functionality without disrupting the existing system, increased durability in case of hardware failure and the potential for performance fine-tuning and enhancement.

COMPLIANCE

Winner – BT

Regulation is currently the number one headache for the finance industry. Although every regulation carries its own pressures, direct responsibility for Know Your Customer (KYC) falls to bank employees, who are keen on getting the process right. Paper-based procedures are not only time-consuming and costly but also risky, being open to error and process failure. BT’s solution, URU, provides a lower risk, lower cost and more transparent alternative to this. The web service carries out checks on passports, driving licences and utility bills, plus it gives access to the latest electoral roll, address, sanctions, credit and telephone databases. With identity theft on the increase, such checks are vital for the confidence of financial professionals charged with responsibility for anti-money laundering, identity verification and KYC. The delivery showed a strong use of up-to-the-minute technologies and the scoring system removed the need for interpretation of results by staff while providing an auditable trail of the check.

Highly commended – World-Check

A strong contender in the compliance area, World-Check is an online identity checking system that allows banks to compare potential or existing customers to a database of individuals involved in illegal activity. As banks will often not capture information (such as military rank) that could highlight an individual as a risk, this level of checking for compliance with KYC or politically-exposed persons allows advanced warning about individuals who may not have been picked up even via government agencies – World-Check gave two examples of this having occurred. For serving a large audience with a straightforward and timely product, the judges felt the nomination deserved credit.

FRONT-OFFICE TECHNOLOGY

Winner – Gissing Software

Just mentioning the level of spreadsheet usage in the front office was enough to upset our judges, so Gissing Software was quickly highlighted as a winner here. RealtimeXL is an application that converts spreadsheets into a format in which they can be combined with multi-vendor data feeds; allows subscription to and publication of new prices; and provides fast, accurate calculation of spreads against benchmarks or option volatilities. Essentially, it allows traders to make decisions based on accurate real-time data. The customer benefits were a hugely increased improvement in subscription performance and contribution performance that required controls to be implemented, limiting this amount to optimise performance. The system’s flexibility achieved a much-needed reduction in cost (halving spreadsheet costs in some cases) and a shared real-time engine across spreadsheets reduced CPU usage while increasing reliability.

PAYMENTS INVESTMENT & WHOLESALE Winner – Citigroup

Through eliminating legacy systems in fund transfer at the corporate investment bank, Citigroup has reduced operating costs and increased efficiency. By replacing those systems with CitiFT it has also used some of the latest technologies – including artificial intelligence-driven, automated STP – and created an almost entirely global platform that connects to all major payment clearing systems, supporting payments processing across Europe, Asia and North America. The construction of the system involved the use of technology from third parties Fundtech and Viveo, with i-flex providing the integration. By using an internal messaging standard on a single platform and providing a single point of information on customers, the system effectively removes the complications associated with cross-border payments and prepares the bank for the concept of the Single European Payments Area (Sepa). It has handled increases in traffic of up to 80% without the bank requiring additional staff, and customers are also seeing the benefits of a standardised and efficient service.

Highly commended – Deutsche Bank

The removal of legacy was also a major point in Deutsche Bank’s nomination, where a number of disparate systems are being replaced with the money transfer new architecture to support high value payments across currencies and locations. In creating a component-based architecture, it was felt that the bank was seriously taking a long-term view on an architectural level. The development was organised across global teams, which also contained staff from the technology and the business areas – making best use of group resources and knowledge. The total cost of ownership for the systems looks as though it will be significantly reduced, although the project is still ongoing. The judges look forward to hearing more in the future.

REFERENCE DATA

Winner – SSISearch

STP can be seriously jeopardised by a lack of strong sourcing and management of reference data. This applies particularly to standard settlement instructions (SSIs) where variations in the standards of communication – from fax, telephone or e-mail to directory services – create an unwieldy assortment of data. The inaccuracy of this data, according to TowerGroup, can cause up to 30% of trade and settlement delays. Automation of SSIs increases the efficiency of process. SSISearch enhances this option by using a secure web-based application, thus reducing any risk involved in IT purchase or integration. The directories offered (one for clearing house CLS and a global one for settlement outside of the CLS environment) are populated with data that banks have contributed and authenticated themselves, taking legal responsibility for its accuracy. With dual authentication built in to the publishing procedure, SSISearch is viewed as a credible source for reference data with clear benefits to the settlement process.

RISK MANAGEMENT

Winner – ABN AMRO

Once again regulatory pressures have been driving innovation in financial services’ use of technology. ABN AMRO believes the future of banks in the payments arena depends on balancing the demands of their customers with those of regulators. To achieve this, the bank created a dashboard that would allow it to ensure that balance was maintained. Integrating the back-office systems (probably the biggest task) was achieved via a service-oriented architecture, allowing data to be used from disparate and varied sources. It is now possible to analyse this data through the dashboard and assess the client’s position, reducing credit risk and the required capital held by the bank. The single view created was an obvious winner, coping with increasingly tough checks and measures in the risk area.

Highly commended – Yolus

Yolus was a strong contender with its ability to monitor clearing and settlements across assets and uninhibited by geography. Having a single point of reference for enquiries, reporting and comparison of current data with historical returns all lent the system to risk management. For one customer, regulatory reporting requirements were a strong driver to purchase but further value was added through the centralisation of data. Cross-margining became automated, allowing heightened scalability and the provision of services to hedge fund clients. Client generation is also helped through risk monitoring as clients can be signed up on the strength of the balance of their account rather than a credit rating.

SELL-SIDE TECHNOLOGY

Winner – UBS

STP is rarely achieved to its full potential so the judges were impressed by UBS’s Direct Strategy Access, which appears to have succeeded in this respect. The project had been run with a number of pieces of proprietary and existing software, saving on costs and time. It allowed the bank to deal with volumes of trading strategies that could not have otherwise been processed and is making a return on the initial investment. With a compelling business case and impressive delivery, the project was a definite winner for this area. (Also ‘Innovation of the year – highly commended’)

Highly commended – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW)

Where a technology replaced the use of Excel spreadsheets, our judges were impressed. DrKW’s proprietary internet-based book-building platform, e-bookbuilding, achieved this distinction. A large multi-tranche bond deal could previously be expected to yield errors in allocation of between 5%-10% but the industrialisation of the process has removed the effects of double counting, missed orders and incorrect allocations while reducing work duplication. Issuers are granted real-time development and analysis of the order book and transactions, avoiding the aggregation of orders across bookrunners and managers through automated consolidation so that all are viewing the same page. The bank has even been approached for the potential to license its technology to other banks, something it has since pursued successfully with a technology vendor.

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