Surecomp^®, the leading global provider of trade finance solutions for banks and corporations, announced today that SCF-PRO^®, its innovative supply chain finance solution for banks and corporations, has been awarded the “SWIFT Certified Application – Supply Chain Finance” label. SCF-PRO has earned this SWIFT accreditation for two years running.

The SWIFT Certified Application program certifies selected third-party applications to ensure that they meet well-defined requirements related to SWIFT standards, messaging and connectivity. Reevaluated each year to ensure alignment with evolving customer needs, certification requirements validate the ability of a product or application to provide automation in a SWIFT environment. SWIFT is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a member-owned cooperative through which the financial world conducts its business operations with speed, certainty and confidence.

“We are proud that SCF-PRO has earned SWIFT accreditation once again. Enhancing cash flow management and reinforcing trade relationships, SCF-PRO delivers real value to both corporations and their trade finance banks,” said Joel Koschitzky, Surecomp Chairman. “This recognition by SWIFT is yet another vote of confidence in our cutting-edge SCF-PRO solution, which helps banks and corporations redefine and better leverage their roles in the supply chain finance cycle.”

 Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced the publication of proposed operational procedures for trading protocols on its FXall platforms, including a codified Provisory Liquidity protocol that governs participants’ use of ‘last look’ liquidity.

The Provisory Liquidity protocol is designed to raise industry standards by outlining clear and consistent eligibility and qualification rules for price makers. It also enables liquidity consumers to make informed trading decisions based on transparent and measurable criteria.

“As a leading independent provider of FX transactions venues, Thomson Reuters is committed to ensuring a confident and effective trading experience for all market participants on all the platforms we operate, while still offering the choice clients need to meet specific trading requirements,” said Phil Weisberg, global head of FX, Thomson Reuters. “Following the new Matching rules we set last year that encouraged high standards of behaviour in primary markets, the updated FXall operational procedures define the same rigorous standards for both our RFQ and Streaming Price trading protocols, where participants transact on a disclosed, relationship basis, as well as our Order Book platform, where participants trade anonymously using either firm or Provisory Liquidity.”

The behavioural and platform controls associated with the Provisory Liquidity protocol empower participants to confidently choose liquidity sources that best suit their needs while mitigating the impact of physical distance on execution quality. They also entitle qualified market makers to manage credit and operational risk when making price and enable intermediaries to offer liquidity to their customers on a riskless-principal basis, thereby enhancing transparency of execution.

“Clients value choice in execution when the choices made available to them are consistently and transparently managed to the highest standard. We therefore designed the new procedures to achieve optimal conditions through a combination of objective and measurable behavioural criteria and platform controls,” continues Weisberg. “More than ever, clients and their liquidity providers seek actionable insight into their execution quality. We provide them with this intelligence.”

Pendo Systems has been on a roll this year, winning a number of awards from international financial technology publications, the New Jersey Technology Council, and SWIFT.

“I am delighted, and also a little surprised at all the attention,” said Pamela Pecs Cytron, founder and CEO of Pendo Systems, which is based in Montclair, NJ.

Pendo has invested heavily in the development of systems for a vital area of financial services — providing complex valuation, accounting support and data management.

“With our release of Extropik™ in late 2014, we are able to robotically extract data from multiple source systems, providing a single view across disparate source systems,” she explained. “One of the biggest challenges in the industry is creating a single view of position inventory and customer and risk data, which are typically scattered across multiple silos. Extropik™ is an intelligent information platform designed to connect, expose, and share data while integrating with financial institutions’ existing legacy infrastructure.

“It automatically replicates operational transactions from any production system into a fully indexed live, real-time open IBOR (Investment Book of Record). Extropik™ enhances operational workflow, providing a foundation for quick system integration and offering a path to eventual legacy system decommissioning. It automatically replicates operational transactions from any production system into a fully indexed live open IBOR.

Industry experts are taking notice, as the 2015 accolades show:

Hedge Funds Awards 2015, Best Fund Administration Software

2015 Corporate LiveWire Business Awards, Innovation & Excellence in Global Investment Accounting Software

2015 Alternative Investment Awards, Innovation in Transparent Financial Services

And from the ACQ Global Awards 10th Anniversary Edition:

Fund Administration System of the Year — BasisPoint

Capital Market Technology Provider of the Year

Gamechanger of the Year (GMT) — Pamela Cytron

The New Jersey Technology Council, Best Information Technology Company 2015

SWIFT Innotribe New York Startup Challenge, 2015 Semi-Finalist

In addition, CIO Review placed Pamela Pecs Cytron on the cover and named Pendo both “Company of the Month” and “One of the 20 Most Promising Capital Market Technology Solution Providers.”

”The company adopts Big Data technologies to quickly assemble diverse data into a meaningful model,” the Review said. “The company embraces simple APIs that support accessing the data from tools like Excel and Tableau as well as from third-party applications, using standardized OAuth (open standard for authorization) security.”

“Our solid data model, which links data, search technology, and probabilistic modeling, helps organizations capture and correlate the information to provide a central view,” she told the magazine.

Cytron said Pendo stands out because it has modern, real-time architecture. “Most of the systems in the back office fund accounting are more than 20 years old, and it shows,” Cytron said. “The firms which developed legacy accounting systems are selling them, and a few large players are collecting the legacy assets like antiques, with no more investment than antiques usually get. Users think they are stuck, but we can offer them a way to move into the 21st century.”

Legacy systems run in batch mode, completely outdated in a world of real-time investment management. By contrast, said Cytron, Pendo users have a complete view of their investments at all times. The industry is waking up to the difference between Pendo and legacy, she added.

“It’s been quite a year, and we’re only halfway,” said Cytron. “It’s great to receive the recognition for Pendo, and it’s important that the key role of a sophisticated investment inventory and accounting engine is recognized. Front office trading systems often get all the glory, but an investor or portfolio manager needs to know what she owns and how it’s valued in real-time to make the best investment decisions. Shifting the model to process the capital market’s inventory (positions) is also a big help in meeting the regulatory requirements.”

Diasoft, a global provider of cutting-edge software solutions for the financial industry, announced today that IDC has positioned Diasoft as a leader in its 2015 Worldwide Core Banking MarketScape.

IDC Financial Insights Worldwide Core Banking MarketScape provides assessment of global core banking solutions in terms of how the major vendors compare with each other and what criteria are most important for financial institutions to consider when making core banking investment decisions. IDC analysts base individual vendor scores, and ultimately vendor positions within the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with the vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and consistent assessment of each vendor's characteristics, behavior, and capability. Significantly, using the IDC MarketScape model, IDC Financial Insights compared 19 core banking solutions in the global marketplace.

"More and more banks are committing to transformational IT initiatives that will take them into tomorrow's world of financial services. This IDC MarketScape is a timely analysis of the broad scope of vendors and solutions, guiding banks through the landscape of traditional and new providers that can help with that transformation", - notes Andrei Charniauski, Research Manager for European Banking at IDC Financial Insights.

This year Diasoft has been ranked as "leader" in IDC Worldwide Core Banking MarketScape 2015 for its FLEXTERA solution based on the system capabilities and its go-to-market and business strategies. One more offering of the company – a previous generation core banking system Diasoft FA# - was named a major player of this MarketScape.

FLEXTERA is an innovative component-based financial solution for front-to-back automation of retail, corporate and universal banking, treasury and capital market operations, and insurance business. The solution is built on the JavaEE technology in full compliance with SOA principles. Being process-driven and meeting the highest demands for flexibility, scalability, performance and reliability, FLEXTERA has become a perfect choice for both mature and emerging markets seeking for a new platform to support their dynamic business development or willing to renovate the existing legacy solutions. The solution easily copes with business volumes of the world’s largest financial institutions, supports such emerging technologies as cloud computing and SaaS, and can be flexibly customized to meet individual non-standard requirements of the most innovative banks.

Diasoft FA# is a comprehensive modular software solution for the automation of all banking, insurance and capital markets operations. The product allows creating a consolidated information environment of a financial institution and can be quickly deployed to support the business of SME and start-up companies. The solution is based on real workflows of financial organizations and is built on the principles of the SOA and component-based architecture.

“Diasoft FLEXTERA meets all modern requirements for a best-in-class core banking system”, - says Andrei Charniauski, research manager for European Banking at IDC Financial Insights. “FLEXTERA’s SOA-based architecture was favorably appraised by its reference customers, who also lauded the company's responsiveness on regulatory compliance and customization. The company's clear vision for product and business growth, along with its focus on functionality and customer service, offer strong potential for international expansion.”

Diasoft thoroughly analyzes the customer’s business needs and IT requirements in order to develop the most cost effective IT strategy and implementation plan. We help financial institutions detect and eliminate causes of low performance of the implemented software solutions and generate a plan for the further IT development. Deploying the required solution, we provide its necessary customization, integration with existing software, and testing.

The company makes sustained investments in R&D, infrastructure and alliance building, leveraging its local and international expertise and product development capabilities, to ensure further development of its solutions in accordance with the market requirements.

“IDC is one of the most respected technology analyst firms globally, and we are very proud to be recognized as a leader of global core banking market”, - stated Andrey Kalinichev, Head of Architecture Department, Diasoft. “We believe that Diasoft has been positioned among the world`s leading providers of core banking systems based on technological features of FLEXTERA  that help to address global transformational initiatives while meeting all of the market challenges”.

“We are very proud for being recognized by IDC – leading analytical company with more than 50 years of experience within the market”, - comments Alexander Glazkov, CEO, Diasoft.  “ It is especially important that Diasoft core banking systems not only meet evaluation criteria of IDC, moreover, they respond to the high-level demands of our customers, who provided a positive feedback accessing features and functionality of our solutions and have highlighted our responsiveness on regulatory compliance and customization opportunities of Diasoft solutions”.

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura), a trusted supplier of wealth management, life insurance and transfer agency software applications, is pleased to announce the launch of a new deployment model for its Rufus transfer agency (TA) proposition. Ideally suited for boutique and mid-sized fund managers, the solution delivers a cost effective and highly scalable self-administration tool.

“In the current market climate injecting efficiencies into TA is paramount. A SaaS deployment delivers the benefits of an enterprise solution but offers boutique and mid-sized users a quick route to market at a more flexible price,” said Andy Chesterton, Chief Operating Officer, Global Transfer Agency at Bravura. “This move demonstrates our ability to anticipate and react to technological and market change. The Rufus system at the heart of this offering is proven in its field and we’re already seeing significant interest in this new approach.”

Available now, the off-the-shelf model offers core TA functionality across a standard set of modules. It can be implemented quickly, without the need for customisation. The SaaS package also includes STP capabilities. Clients will be able to take advantage of Bravura’s hosted service offering, including management of hardware, performance and day to day running of the service in a secure, dedicated environment.

Andy added, “Our TA SaaS proposition offers all the technical advantages of outsourcing with the flexibilities smaller organisations are demanding – a short implementation timeframe and low outlay being key. Boutique transfer agencies looking to self-administer will benefit from Rufus’ well established market capabilities as well as Bravura’s deep domain expertise.”

Bravura also offers a SaaS TA deployment model suited to both existing players and new entrants in the UK third party administrator (TPA) marketplace. It is designed for those firms servicing boutique and mid-sized fund management companies that do not have the appetite for the self-administration option and provides the same cost model and speed to market efficiencies.

Bravura continues to provide bespoke, global, enterprise TA software and services through its core applications: Rufus, GFAS and GTAS; and surround technology solutions: taWeb, Babel and ODS. The company has a long track record in delivering mission critical record-keeping software to blue-chip clients, as well as support via its fully managed service.

Surecomp^®, the leading global provider of trade finance solutions for banks and corporations, announced today that Isbank AG, the European arm of Turkey’s leading bank Türkiye Is Bankasi A.S., has licensed Surecomp’s state-of-the-art DOKA 5® trade finance system. A configurable bank back-office solution, DOKA 5 leverages Surecomp’s decades of experience providing proven trade finance systems to banks and corporations worldwide.

Headquartered in Frankfurt, Isbank spearheads its parent company’s international expansion plans, and promotes close commercial and other ties between Western Europe and Turkey.

To compete in today’s dynamic market and to meet and surpass exceptions, Isbank has over the past 18 months embarked on a major overhaul of its core banking system and critical modules including cash management. Working closely with Swiss-headquartered Avaloq Banking System, a Surecomp partner, Isbank completed the implementation and went live with it’s the new core system in record time.

Understanding that trade finance is a key element in building strong international operations, and that the bank’s in-place manual system would not allow for the growth strategy envisaged by the bank, Isbank embarked on a comprehensive evaluation of currently available trade finance solutions.

Isbank sought an efficient, agile and responsive trade finance solution to meet the business challenges of its corporate clients. The bank also wanted to partner with a solution provider that offers not only advanced software solutions but also superior integration and support services.

“After a careful review of various competitive offerings, we selected Surecomp’s DOKA 5 solution. While we appreciated DOKA 5’s comprehensive features and functionalities, we were particularly impressed by its easily customizable toolkit options,” said Uzay Ersin, Corporate Operations Manager at Isbank. “Throughout the evaluation process, the Surecomp team exhibited extensive market knowledge, and provided us with expert advice and assistance.”

“Our goal is to accompany our clients in their international business growth through a long-term partnership approach, supported by the dedication and passion of our trade finance professionals,” remarked Moshe Wolfson, Surecomp Vice President Sales EMEA and Global Head of Marketing. “We greatly appreciate Isbank’s vote of confidence in our company, and look forward to successfully partnering with the bank in the years ahead.”

Misys, the leading financial software company, has launched an in-memory analytics engine, FusionBanking Insight, integrated with its next-generation core banking solution, FusionBanking Essence. The solution enables banks to gain insight into the profitability of customers, branches and products to deliver services that their customers will value most.

According to PwC, a staggering 56 per cent of bank executives based their last big decision on intuition, experience and the relevant experience of others^[1]. Why? They do not have easily accessible data. Either it is too time consuming to pull together - by the time they have the data it is out-of-date - or bank executives simply do not know what data they could access.

The in-memory analytics engine, FusionBanking Insight, provides super-fast query response times, by residing data in computers’ RAM, not on physical disks or in OLAP cubes. It allows banks to analyse vast amounts of data in real time, in the blink of an eye. FusionBanking Insight comprises a set of out-of-the-box dashboards, bringing the most commonly needed data points to bank executives. This is enhanced with user-definable dashboards, where users can create bespoke analysis.

“Banks have a vast amount of data locked away unused in their core banking systems”, states Cormac Flanagan, Product Director, Misys FusionBanking Essence. “By implementing FusionBanking Insight banks can understand customers better and identify where they can increase profitability for each of their products. It also provides valuable insight into the financial aspirations and behaviours of their customers.”

Banks need to re-engineer their banking systems using an ‘outside-in banking’ approach to modernisation. This puts customers and their needs at the heart of banks’ processes and enables banks to serve clients more effectively to grow the relationship at the same time as their business. Misys FusionBanking Insight is the latest innovation in the FusionBanking Essence portfolio of solutions that provides banks with the ability to get closer to their customers and their needs.

Traditional and start-up banks need to put their customers first, to understand their needs better, to communicate with them how they want and to ‘advise’ them rather than sell to them. Misys FusionBanking Essence is recognised as being ‘best in class’ for customer-centricity, so when modernising core platforms, banks need to think outside-in banking.

Innovation is key to the success of Yoma Bank in Myanmar, one of the many Misys clients who are seeing benefits to the outside-in banking approach. “We’re transforming the bank to introduce new channels, new products and a new dimension to customer service which will cement our position as an innovative leader in Myanmar,” states Hal Bosher, CEO of Yoma Bank. “We’re excited to be collaborating with Misys - the company is certainly leading the field with core banking innovation.”

^[1] PWC: Global Data & Analytics Survey, 2014

Path Solutions, the global Islamic banking software group announced that Kenya-based National Bank successfully went live on April 27th 2015 with iMAL Islamic core banking system for its Islamic window named National Amanah. 

The iMAL implementation was the smoothest in the history of National Bank which considered the project duration a record-breaker in comparison to previous core banking system implementations. National Bank went live with the Branch Automation module, the Retail and Corporate Islamic Financing applications, the Islamic Profit Calculation, the Electronic Check Clearing system with interfaces to ATM/POS.

Announcing this, Mr. Musa A. Adan, Director Islamic Banking at National Bank said, “Over the past few years, we have been gearing up to drive an alternative form of banking that is based on the principles of Sharia. Thus, we had no choice but to take advantage of new-age Sharia-compliant technologies which would help in launching new Islamic banking products and services with reduced time-to-market and costs. Having made this decision, we are confident that the knowledge Path Solutions has gained through numerous successful projects not only in this region but across the globe, will help us achieve our ambitious growth plans”.

According to Jacob Zachariah Karuvelil, Executive Vice President - Global Professional Services & Global Support at Path Solutions, “Africa is a very strategic market for us, and over the past two years Path Solutions’ iMAL has emerged as the preferred solution for forward-looking Islamic banks and Islamic subsidiaries across the region. I am confident that National Bank will be able to leverage the benefits of iMAL solution, launch innovative Islamic banking products and services quickly and gain business agility in its banking operations. We are optimistic that our partnership will go a long way to give National Bank derived substantial business benefits”. Jacob also thanked both partners’ project teams and management for their tireless efforts and dedication throughout the project implementation.

Path Solutions’ continued investment in innovation underscores its long-term promise and sharp focus on bringing effective Islamic banking software solutions to financial institutions worldwide. Today, more than 100 Islamic financial institutions use iMAL as their preferred technology solution in accordance with the Sharia. iMAL is well calibrated to clients’ needs in terms of Sharia compliance and transparency, and provides a very strong base for future growth.
iMAL Islamic Banking & Investment System is undoubtedly a flagship solution having topped the IBS Islamic Sales League Table for an impressive six years running.
 

 Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) has signed an agreement with Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) to acquire the Fiduciary Services and Competitive Intelligence unit from Thomson Reuters Lipper. Broadridge's agreement with Thomson Reuters also includes a long term content and brand licensing services agreement in which Thomson Reuters Lipper will provide Broadridge with data on investment product classifications, pricing, performance, benchmarking, product asset positions, and product flows, ensuring continuity of underlying content and methodology. The acquisition will expand Broadridge's leading enterprise data and analytics solutions for mutual fund manufacturers, ETF issuers, and fund administrators, adding new global data and research capabilities.

Thomson Reuters Fiduciary Services and Competitive Intelligence business provides global market intelligence for fund industry flows by country and distribution channel. It is also the leading provider of 15(c) advisory contract renewal services for validating and benchmarking fee and expense agreements to more than 250 mutual fund families, including three-quarters of the world's largest mutual fund organizations.

"This acquisition will reinforce Broadridge's position as one of the leading providers of data solutions and market intelligence for the mutual fund sector, and expand our footprint globally," said Richard J. Daly, president and chief executive officer, Broadridge. "It is aligned with our long term strategy to grow Broadridge's enterprise data and analytics capabilities. As regulatory pressures increase and new digital opportunities emerge, these solutions will help our clients mitigate risks, meet their fiduciary responsibilities and enhance sales productivity."

Broadridge will integrate the acquired capabilities within its well established mutual fund and retirement business, expanding its existing Access Data suite of market intelligence solutions. These include compliance and reporting tools that cover 90 percent of all U.S long-term mutual fund assets and 95 percent of all ETF assets.

Gerard F. Scavelli, president of Broadridge's Mutual Funds and Retirement Solutions business division commented, "With the addition of these fiduciary services and competitive intelligence capabilities, we will expand our reach and innovative solutions for the mutual fund industry globally. These new capabilities will help our clients meet the growing demand for compliance oversight, fee benchmarking and analysis and global market intelligence, including access to fund flow, expense data and fund profile information on more than 80,000 portfolios worldwide." Mr. Scavelli continued, "We remain firmly committed to delivering the same high level of service and quality that customers have come to expect from Thomson Reuters. The same team that currently delivers these solutions will transition to Broadridge and will continue in their roles so that service will continue uninterrupted."

"Thomson Reuters and Broadridge share a common objective of providing the highest quality information and reporting services for mutual fund companies worldwide," said Lars Asplund, a managing director at Thomson Reuters. "This sale will enable us to increase our focus on the core content business and further enable development and new capabilities for serving the asset management and wealth management markets. We will continue to provide our highly respected fund data, analytics and research through desktop solutions such as Thomson Reuters Eikon, Thomson One, Lipper for Investment Management, LANA and feeds, as well as through licensed third-party platforms.  We look forward to the ongoing relationship with Broadridge."

The acquisition is expected to close during Broadridge's fourth fiscal quarter and is subject to customary closing conditions, including the termination or expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.