Diasoft, a global provider of cutting-edge software solutions for financial institutions, is shortlisted in “Cloud Computing Innovation of the Year” category of FSTech Awards 2014 jointly with BFA Bank.

Now into its 14th year, the FStech Awards recognizes excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the UK and EMEA financial services sector. Diasoft and BFA Bank fended off competition from numerous of entries to be shortlisted in “Cloud Computing Innovation of the Year” category. The shortlisted companies of this nomination demonstrate excellence in the area of cloud computing for 2012/13, including new strategies, evidence of success by utilizing the cloud, and how the cloud computing innovation has brought customers cost and efficiency benefits.

Diasoft and BFA Bank are recognized by FStech Awards for the complex automation of retail business of the bank through implementation of innovative FLEXTERA solution.  
In order to deliver the system in the shortest timeframes Diasoft offered to BFA Bank a radically different approach to building a banking environment – implementation of its cutting-edge FLEXTERA based on innovative cloud infrastructure.
 
Cloud deployment of FLEXTERA allowed the bank to acquire numerous benefits, including flexibility and scalability to meet the growing business demands, reduction of IT costs and resource sharing among a large number of users.

“Recognition from one of the leading IT associations on their best-of lists is a one more proof point that the financial institutions around the globe are benefiting from Diasoft`s cutting edge solutions available for cloud implementation”, said Dmitry Zubarev, CEO, Diasoft. “Today all of the FLEXTERA Products are available for Cloud Deployment — an alternative to the on-site implementation of an application. Cloud technology allows small and mid-size financial institutions to easily get access to the infrastructure, platform and software, and ensures considerable time and budget savings already at the implementation stage”.
 
This year Diasoft launched a private cloud service, allowing for customers screening against Public Officials (PO) and Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) lists. New cloud service from Diasoft - “Screen your customer!” - is used for the automation of business processes of financial institutions in accord to the requirements of the Law "On Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing".
 
FSTech honor reflects Diasoft`s consistent record of delivering the solutions that financial market needs to simplify operations, minimize costs and gain secure IT infrastructures. Recognition from FSTech come on the heels of numerous other accolades for Diasoft – the company is positioned as a leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for International Retail Core Banking, included into the FinTech 100 ranking of the Global Technology Providers of the Financial Services Industry, awarded with the “Best IT-solution” accolade by Retail Finance Awards 2013, named to Software Magazine’s 31st Annual Software 500 ranking among other recognitions.

ElectraCard Services (ECS), a leading provider of software and processing solutions for electronic payment systems, today announced that they have undertaken the end-to-end management of NMB Bank credit and debit cards. ECS will offer these services through their world class PCI DSS certified data centre. 

NMB Bank Limited, one of the leading commercial banks in Nepal, has been licensed as ‘A’ class financial institute by Nepal Rastra Bank in May 2008. Over the past fifteen years the bank has been successfully providing banking and financial services in the Nepalese financial market. NMB Bank joins over 9 other banks in Nepal that are already running on the ECS payment platform.

ECS will provide the Bank a comprehensive debit and credit processing solution. The EMV compliant card management systems provide the Bank with complete management of the cards lifecycle, and support all major card networks like VISA®, SCT and NPN. Selection of ECS at NMB was facilitated by Imark Pvt Ltd., one of the largest local IT systems integrators in Nepal, and will help the bank to achieve its ambitious business objectives of expanding its credit and debit card base.

ECS provides global institutions with end-to-end Processing Services to suit their individual market requirements. With superior software technology, agile processing, cost effective deployment, continuous innovation and a PCI-DSS certification, ECS provides customers with an outstanding value proposition.

“For banks to provide customers with the best banking solutions, technology becomes crucial. We were the ideal technology partner given our modern platform, extensive expertise in migrations globally and adept understanding of the regulatory and banking requirements of Nepal. We are extremely happy to join forces with NMB Bank and help them offer customers better service, wider reach and improved security. With the addition of NMB Bank, the electra platform becomes the foremost platform on which card issuance is carried out in Nepal, with a 75% market share,” said Mr. Ramesh Mengawade, CEO, ElectraCard Services.

Mr. Upendra Poudyal, CEO, NMB Bank, said, “We chose ECS due to its global leadership, unparalleled deployment experience and installed base in Nepal. It also offers unrivalled functionality over a broad solution set, as well as its seamless integration capability. ECS will provide us with a solid platform to manage our growth efficiently. The platform will help us quickly and cost-effectively deliver new products and services as we grow and serve our customers in Nepal.”

With the move to ECS processing platform, NMB Bank will also be able to provide their customers additional features on the cards including secure ecommerce transactions and reward points.

DealHub (Option Computers Ltd)announced today that Abu Dhabi based First Gulf Bank (FGB), one of the major leading banks in the UAE, is now using a bespoketreasury managementsolution fromDealHub. The system allows the bank to monitor activity, positions and profit and loss (P&L) across all trading channels in real time.

Chris Wilmot, Group Head of Treasury & Global Markets at First Gulf Bank, comments: “As our Global Financial Markets trading business expands, it’s critical that we’re able to continue to manage our operations efficiently, particularly as e-trading volumes increase. After evaluating a number of potential providers, we chose DealHub’s treasury management solution for two key reasons. Firstly, through our longstanding relationship with DealHub, we knew we could rely on them to deliver. Secondly, their ability to customise the solution to our specific workflows and requirements was critical. The system has been live now for several weeks and we’re benefiting from real-time insight into trade volumes, counterparty exposure and P&L. The system is a vital foundation for the continued expansion of our e-trading business.”

The treasury management solution went live at FGB in early December and builds on existing DealHub infrastructure at FGB, which consolidates post trade feeds from allFX trading platforms into a single STP feed for downstream integration. The new solution sits ahead of the bank’s existing risk system and provides FGB traders and management with highly customised overview and workflow tools.A flexible dashboard allows them to see positions by trader, currency, venue, or counterparty, and a consolidated blotter is easy to filter and query, pinpointing the exact information required to manage trading activity and profits in real time. Flexible workflow tools streamline or automate complex tasks, including manual trade capture, revaluations, position transfers, end of day rolls and multi-instrument risk reporting.

“The successful roll out of our treasury management solution at FGB demonstrates the huge value that DealHub’s integrated post trade services can offer,” comments Chris Leaver, COO at DealHub. “Building on a normalised backbone of post trade connectivity, our flexible rules-based components can be tailored to specific bank requirements, providing custom position and P&L management tools, while automating complex trade processing tasks, all in a fraction of the time and effort required to customise and deploy a traditional risk system.”

Combining the widest range of market connectivity, with flexible trade processing and overview modules, DealHub’s comprehensive post trade solutions are used by a range of financial markets customers, including the majority of the world’s largest banks, to consolidate trades from multiple venues and counterparties for overview, processing and onward delivery into risk and back office systems.

Diasoft, a leading provider of software solutions for the global financial industry, offers an opportunity for online testing of its Legacy Renovation technology through real-time conversion of COBOL source code to Java EE at http://cobol2java.com/.

Based on more than 20-year experience in software development and using the best IT practices and globally approved technologies, Diasoft offers to the market a modern cost effective approach to legacy solutions enhancement which allows rapid modernization of the existing IT infrastructure and also provides the business with a powerful development tool.  

Diasoft’s unique legacy renovation methodology involves the automated conversion of legacy source code to cutting-edge SOA JavaEE technology, making it possible to rapidly transform aging IT infrastructures into the modern 3-tier architecture without the need to reconstruct the existing business processes or get rid of the corresponding customized software features. The technology is based on Diasoft Framework - a modern SOA-compliant development tool and reliable platform for Java-based services, and has successfully proven its efficiency with obsolete systems developed in COBOL (including BMS Maps and JCL), SmallTalk, SQL, Oracle Forms, Borland Delphi, Centura/Gupta, Visual Basic), etc.

Modernizing legacy solutions with our Legacy Renovation technology, organization acquires a modern scalable system, running on most available enterprise-class servers, operating systems and databases – a system which can be easily integrated into any IT-landscape and which can serve as a basis for the development of an integrated IT-infrastructure. All the unique business logic of a legacy solution is retained and can be further expanded or modified in accordance with new business requirements, with the modifications taking much less time and efforts.

Here are 5 main advantages of system modernization with the help of the Legacy Renovation technology:

• Retaining and extending legacy investments, since the unique business logic is maintained in the renovated system;
• Retaining user interfaces and pageflow logic, which saves time for training staff to work with a new system;
• Automated conversion of the business logic — we do not need to know how this logic works, and we will not spend months for auditing and creating thousands of pages of specifications;
• Parallel running of the new and the old systems, which considerably reduces risks and allows for gradual migration of users to the new core banking system and allows for instant switching back to the old system in case of emergency;
• Iterative approach to the project allowing for gradual system modernization and step-by-step migration of the functionality to the Diasoft Framework. In comparison to other approaches, it allows for smooth migration for both the business and IT.

Diasoft is the first provider, offering an opportunity to test its Legacy renovation service online. Check our real-time COBOL to Java EE converter at http://cobol2java.com/. Being a part of Diasoft’s Legacy Renovation technology, online converter was designed to demonstrate advanced capabilities of migration toolkit, allowing to convert COBOL statements into readable and supportable Java code. Simply run your COBOL code through the translator and launch converted code right in the window of your browser.

“Diasoft has great experience in successful modernization of both its own solutions and systems provided by other vendors, including the projects for the implementation and running of the renovated systems in several banks. This is the reason why we understand well all difficulties and risks the bank can face during such projects and how to overcome such challenges. We have necessary tools and expertise to fulfill the modernization projects in the most efficient way – both in terms of technologies and in terms of project planning and risk management. In other words, we offer not only an innovative and technologically advanced platform, but a transparent project approach, with predictable terms and budget”, - Alexey Zanyuk, Director for Legacy Renovation Department, Diasoft.

After meeting with great success  during  previous  voting  campaigns, Version III of VOTACCESS, the platform for collecting shareholders' electronic votes prior to general meetings, is available for the 2014 season. 
 
The launch of VOTACCESS at the end of 2011 was initiated by the French Association of Securities Professionals (AFTI), and since then the number of issuing companies signing up for the platform has continued to increase, from six in 2012 to 25 in 2013. 
 
While already half of the companies listed on the CAC40 chose VOTACCESS for their 2013 general meetings, the aim is to have new issuers from the CAC40 and SBF250 sign up every season. The 2014 season is already looking very promising in this regard. 
 
All the major banking networks are now connected to VOTACCESS. The platform has demonstrated its reliability and robustness, and feedback from shareholders regarding its ease of use has been extremely positive. The platform's success is helping to promote shareholder democracy. 
 
New features of Version III 
Every year, the platform is upgraded to meet the needs of a growing number of issuers and shareholder types. 
 
For example, two of the most notable new features of the 2014 edition are: 

• inclusion of votes of those who hold units in French employee savings schemes (FCPEs): already compatible with bearer and registered forms of unitholding, VOTACCESS now allows indirect unitholders via FCPEs to vote,  
• voting screens now available to shareholders in four more languages, bringing the total number of available languages to six: French, English, German, Dutch, Spanish and Italian. 

 
VOTACCESS: an innovative initiative from AFTI, operated by SLIB 

AFTI delegated the task of creating and managing the VOTACCESS platform to software  publisher SLIB. The platform has been operational since 2011. 
 
Shareholders of listed companies that have chosen to use this platform may, under certain conditions, transmit their voting instructions electronically to VOTACCESS in the form of highly secure electronic data.  
  
After viewing digital documents made available to them within the platform, shareholders can: 

• vote directly on resolutions proposed by the AGM, 
• designate an authorised representative, 
• request an attendance card. 

 
By the same token, shareholders' voting instructions sent by mail are scanned by the account holders as soon as they are received. They are then recorded in VOTACCESS, allowing fully automated centralisation. 
 
The benefit of this initiative for issuers is that it encourages many more shareholders to vote. 
 
Furthermore,  issuers  are safeguarding the environment by disseminating information and collecting 
shareholder votes entirely electronically. 
 
VOTACCESS is a trademark of SLIB.

Diasoft, a global provider of cutting-edge core banking solutions, continues the complex project of FLEXTERA BI implementation in Interprombank.

Currently FLEXTERA BI “Reporting” implemented in Interprombank supports all of the 15 reporting forms, including: 0409102, 0409110, 0409115, 0409117, 0409118, 0409125, 0409135, 0409251, 0409257, 0409808, as well as currency control forms like 0409401, 0409402, 0409405, 0409407, 0409664. The choice of FLEXTERA BI is based on a long-lasting cooperation of Interprombank with Diasoft. The bank is an active user of Diasoft`s complex core banking solution.

Development of Interprombank business required an increased performance and improved business-processes, while constant changes of regulatory requirements made the extended reporting functionality critical for the bank. As a result of FLEXTERA BI implementation Diasoft automated key processes of Interprombank in terms of the most complex reporting forms.

“Reporting” solution, developed based on FLEXTERA BI Analytical Center, allows building an effective reporting process and ensures the increased performance of work due to the high level of productivity and flexibility in setting of every reporting form by Interprombank business-users with minimal involvement of IT-specialists. The system provides data enrichment and reports specification opportunities for the additional analysis basing on industrial visualization tools. Ability for inter-form and cross-form quality control of input and processed data allows forming the reliable reports and discovering weak points in accounting systems through analysis of identified errors.

“We were able to achieve first business results within only 5 months period after the project start. Since all the necessary data has already been collected within a single storage model further implementation of reporting forms appeared to be much faster”, - said Irina Nikotineva, Head of Reporting Department, Interprombank. “We order the implementation of additional FLEXTERA BI forms step by step - according to our real time requirements. Due to recent tightening of calculations algorithm by local regulator we launched in production reporting form 0409125 “Information on assets and liabilities by claiming and repayment period” basing on FLEXTERA BI. I want to highlight the professionalism and teamwork of Diasoft specialists involved into requirements analysis and implementation of this reporting form in Interprombank.”