News

The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned an Essex mortgage broker after he was found to have submitted an application for a home loan for himself containing false information about his income. Abdul Karim, who traded as Monopoly@States in Hornchurch, applied for a £480,000 ($784,323) mortgage. He claimed to have an annual income of over £100,000 but simultaneously declared a salary of £30,000 to HM Revenue & Customs. The FSA said that as the amount applied for was 16 times his... more

A New Zealander believed to be the last link in an international money laundering and investment scam is on the run in Dubai, US prosecutors have announced. Wayne Leslie Davidson is accused of travelling around New Zealand selling bogus pre-revolution Chinese gilts and US railroad bonds to sheep farmers in the country, the New Zealand Herald said. Victims of the scheme, which ran from 1998 and 2003, were sold the bonds with the guarantee that they were risk-free and had "astronomical... more

Trade union LTU has attacks Lloyds Banking Group and called on the government to intervene in the state-backed lender's affairs after it announced more job cuts and renewed its commitment to its offshoring policy. Lloyds has confirmed that it will cut a further 2,113 jobs as it continues to rationalize following the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS. Over the past ten weeks, the banking conglomerate has announced 7,500 job losses, Shout99 reports. LTU said managers have rubbed "further salt into... more

Pricing Partners www.pricingpartners.com, the independent valuation expert and a world leader in mathematical models and analytics for derivatives and structured products, announced today a remarkable improvement on its independent valuation internet platform in order to price more accurately TEC10 and EONIA specific products.Financial products on the TEC10 rate, which is the market rate at which for the French government can borrow for 10 years, were under the spotlights because of the... more

Chancellor Alistair Darling’s tough warning to bankers against a return to the bad old days of hefty bonuses and excessive risk taking has once again thrown into the spotlight how the culture of the City has to change. The Chancellor declared in an interview with The Independent: “There are people who are too complacent in my view. They need to be brought back to earth.” While he said that ministers would not legislate to cap bonuses, a White Paper on banking to be published next week will... more

Semlab, the Netherlands’ leading company in semantic analysis software, has announced that its ViewerPro platform for real time news analysis is now fully integrated with both DowJones and Reuters financial news feeds.ViewerPro is a news analysis solution that can receive (financial) news feeds from disparate sources, such as DowJones, Reuters, RSS feeds, etc. These feeds are processed by using computational linguistics, formal logic and semantic analysis. This way, ViewerPro automatically... more

Frontier Capital Management LLP (“Frontier”), a London-based specialist investment company, announces that their Multi Asset Platform (MAP) Funds have been selected as a Core Investment Solution for use by Bluefin Advisory Services, a national financial advisory business employing over 3,000 people throughout the UK with £3.5bn under advisement.One of four core solutions selected by Bluefin, Frontier’s MAP Funds offer a sophisticated yet efficient access to a portfolio incorporating eight... more

 

Religare Technova Global Solutions Pty Ltd (“RTGS”), a Religare Technova company, today announced the addition of BOC International Holdings Limited (“BOCI”) to its list of clients. BOCI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of China Limited ("BOC"), has selected RTGS’s flagship trade processing and settlement platform NOVA to facilitate the company’s expansion in the region.NOVA provides a full suite of middle and back office functions whether they be for global, regional or domestic... more

 

ING Direct Canada has launched a new application for the social networking site Twitter that enables users to tweet their bank fees and compare what they are being charged. Fee Tweeter is part of the bank's fairfees.ca initiative, which ING says is encouraging Canadians to speak up about fair and unfair service levies. Users with Twitter accounts can tweet to @FeeTweeter. They will receive a direct message every two weeks giving their total fees tweeted to date. They can also view the total by... more

TelecityGroup Netherlands has been validated compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) as a Level 1 service provider by Trustwave, the leading provider of on-demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to businesses and organizations throughout the world.PCI DSS is the payment card industry security requirement for entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data, and has been endorsed by American Express, Discover... more

 

Bravura Solutions (Bravura), a leading global supplier of wealth management applications and professional services, today announced JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (J.P. Morgan) signed a five year contract to use Bravura’s Rufus transfer agency platform.The software license and managed services agreement represents a multi-year commitment from J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan (through its Worldwide Securities Services division) provides Transfer Agency services in Luxembourg and Dublin, and has announced... more

 

Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority (CMA) has taken the "rare step" of issuing fines against two investors over alleged insider trading on the Arab world's largest bourse. Each of the investors, Mohammed bin Ibrahim al-Issa and Mohammed bin Salah al-Rushudi, were fined 100,000 riyals ($26,700), the Financial Times reports. The CMA accused Mr al-Issa of using his position on the board of Saudi Hotels to obtain privileged information, which he then used to trade on the company's shares. In... more

Barclays and the Chinese lender Mega International have been censured by Australia's anti-money laundering body for "significant breaches" of the country's rules on reporting suspicious transactions and account activity. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) said the banks' actions had left their services and the wider financial system vulnerable to potential abuse by criminals looking to launder the proceeds of crime or finance terrorism. Barclays has undertaken to... more

Consumers want higher standards of data protection and security before they will be satisfied with the safety of card payments - and many find it hard to trust vendors that have already suffered a data breach, a new international survey has found. The poll by the Secure POS Vendor Alliance (SPVA) questioned cardholders in the United Kingdom, the United States and France, the Retail Bulletin stated. It found that 73 percent want to see tougher security standards, while 62 percent would be worried... more

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) today announced the appointment of Martha Bejar as President, Global Sales and Operations. In her role as global head of sales and operations, Martha will focus on the global ‘Go to Market’ strategy, drive revenue growth and leverage on Wipro’s strength in innovation, technology, process insight and globalization to further enhance the company’s position as a business transformation catalyst. Prior to this,... more

 

RTS Realtime Systems Group announced today that it is one of the first major technology providers to globally roll out Deutsche Boerse’s new low latency, high-speed access interfaces, the Enhanced Transaction Solution and Enhanced Broadcast Solution, along with the new Xetra Release 10.0.Deutsche Boerse offers traders two new dedicated high-speed interfaces that can be seamlessly deployed via RTS’ trading solutions. The Enhanced Transaction Solution is an asynchronous message-based interface... more

Open Text Corporation, a global leader in Enterprise Content Management (ECM), today announced that Canopius has selected the Open Text ECM Suite to improve processes, reduce filing costs and more importantly support the implementation of electronic trading. Realising the ever-increasing market demand for electronic trading, Canopius, an international insurance and reinsurance group that operates at Lloyd's and through its overseas operations in Bermuda, Singapore, Ireland and Australia,... more

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced it has been selected as the 2009 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards winner for Notes Transition Partner of the Year, marking the company’s 19th Microsoft Partner of the Year distinction. EMC was chosen out of an international field of top Microsoft partners for delivering its market-leading NoteSwitch Complete solutions built on Microsoft technology. “EMC consultants have years... more

Temenos (SWX: TEMN), the global provider of integrated core banking systems, today announced that Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) in Australia, has selected TEMENOS T24 (T24) as the core platform of their Onlending and Investment Administration (OLIA) solution. QTC, as the Queensland Government's central funding authority and corporate treasury services provider, signed the deal with Temenos as part of a program to increase the flexibility of its products and service efficiency for its... more

Nearly all of the UK’s midsize companies suffer from poor-quality data according to a recent study conducted by IBM.[1] The study of 100 board-level decision makers of mid-market organisations also found that two thirds of them rely on error-prone manual processes to deal with data. The new study reveals that nearly half of respondents (46%) admitted concern about the overall integrity of their information they use to make critical business decisions. “In a challenging economic climate,... more

Strategic Thought was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in the July 2009 report - The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms, Q3 2009. In this evaluation Strategic Thought was cited as a strong performer overall for its Active Risk Manager (ARM) solution.Forrester evaluated 14 enterprise GRC platform vendors using 80 criteria and commented that “Strategic Thought demonstrated the deepest capabilities for risk management among the... more

 

QuIC Financial Technologies Inc, a global solutions provider of risk management, pricing and financial analytics, today announced that QuIC Analyzer™ is quickly gaining market traction as an easy-to-use, powerful GUI. Many QuIC clients have now incorporated QuIC Analyzer into their overall risk management solutions, and demand for QuIC Analyzer is growing rapidly.Designed for risk management professionals who rely on rapid, concise risk calculations, QuIC Analyzer revolutionises the way users... more

Global financial risk modelling company Barrie & Hibbert has expanded its EMEA client facing team, announcing new staff members in London and Germany. The growth comes as Barrie & Hibbert enjoys continued success worldwide. It has been recruiting for the EMEA team in recent months, and now welcomes four new key members of staff covering the pensions and insurance markets.In the Barrie & Hibbert London office Aziz Jalil, Viktor Knava and Arturo Rodriguez have all joined the team. Aziz will be... more

BWise, a leading provider of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Management software solutions, today announced that it was cited as a leader in Enterprise GRC Capabilities in the July 2009 report, Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms, Q3 2009 by Chris McClean with Robert Whiteley, Khalid Kark, and Alissa Dill. BWise was chosen as a leader among 14 select companies that Forrester Research, Inc. invited to participate in the report. “The BWise platform... more

The CHX announced today that beginning today the rebate paid to customers providing liquidity in Tape A and C issues trading above $1.00 in the CHX Matching System will be raised from 0.26 to 0.29 per-100 executed shares. When combined with the Exchange's 0.32 rebate per- 100 executed shares in Tape B issues that trade above $1.00, and the rebate of 0.1% of the trade value on stocks in all tapes that trade under $1.00, the Exchange's “provide credits” are among the highest paid by the... more

Infor today announced Infor Flex, a groundbreaking program that gives customers on maintenance a clear, fast and cost effective path to adopt Infor’s latest product innovations. Through a package of software, services and financing, Infor Flex gives customers compelling, low-risk options to upgrade to the latest version of their existing Infor products or exchange to another Infor product, on a like-for-like basis. The decision to upgrade or exchange is completely in the hands of customers... more

Progress Software Corporation , today launched FUSEÔ Forge, a collaborative environment for developing open source projects based on Progress FUSE products. The Progress FUSE product line includes productized versions of Apache ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, CXF and Camel. FUSE components are standards-based, open source enterprise integration tools based on popular Apache SOA projects, and are productized and supported by the people who contribute to and influence the Apache projects. Progress... more

The float version of the Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM, the original measure of the U.S. equity market, will no longer include Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) as of the September 18, 2009 semi-annual rebalance, according to Wilshire Associates Incorporated, a leading global independent investment consulting and services firm. The full-cap version of the Wilshire 5000 SM, which is widely quoted in the media and used by economists, forecasters and government entities as the best measure of... more

Bravura Solutions supplier of wealth management applications and professional services has signed a partner program agreement with International Financial Systems Australia Pty Ltd, (i-Financial) a company specialising in providing software solutions, services and equipment to a variety of banks, credit unions and financial institutions worldwide, to supply anti-money laundering software to Bravura’s clients.Anti-money laundering has become more heavily regulated in Australia following new... more

FERNBACH-Software, a global provider of award-winning financial software solutions, and Norddeutsche Landesbank Luxembourg have concluded a contract for the solution "FlexFinance Analytix Liquidity Reporting”. Due to a lengthy and successful co-operation with FERNBACH, NORD/LB Luxembourg decided to add the high-performance software FlexFinance® Analytix Liquidity Reporting, developed specially for liquidity risk management in banks, to its existing solutions. NORD/LB Luxembourg, which is a... more

The UK's biggest supermarket group Tesco is interested in buying the nationalized bank Northern Rock, the Times has claimed. Government ministers are keen to return the troubled lender to the private sector, preferably at a profit, before the next general election with an outright sale preferred to floatation because it will be quicker, the newspaper added. In order to attract potential buyers, the Treasury plans to split the bank's good and bad assets, with some of the most toxic assets likely... more

INSTEC, a leading provider of rating and policy administration software for the insurance industry, announces the agreement with Hatboro, PA based Aon Affinity Commercial Services for INSTEC’s QuickSolver Commercial Auto. The countrywide, QuickSolver Commercial Automobile rating and forms software was delivered out of the box to Aon Affinity in May 2009 and used to process imminent renewals. Follow-on customizations that reflect uniqueness of the program filing will be delivered later this... more

Consumers who limit their online shopping say they would make more purchases online if their financial institution offered them a safe payment method. This is according to research commissioned by NYCE Payments Network, LLC, a leading U.S. electronic payments network and a Metavante (NYSE:MV) company. Metavante is a leading provider of banking and payments technology.The research, conducted by marketing research firm Analytica Inc., surveyed 2,608 consumers for their attitudes about shopping... more

Surrenda-link Investment Management (Surrenda-link), aleading fund manager and investment advisor specialising in Traded Life Investments, has commenced implementation of SunGard’s Ambit Leasing & Asset Based Finance solution. The solution will help Surrenda-link automate its asset management processes from contract origination through to completion. It will also help Surrenda-link improve client reporting and reduce costs related to administrative overheads, and will help support the firm’s... more

Scivantage, a leading provider of Web-based, front- and middle-office technology solutions to the financial services industry announced today that Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment management companies, has selected Scivantage Maxit to provide automated cost basis reporting and tax management capabilities to their mutual fund and brokerage clients. Maxit will be available as an integrated solution on Vanguard.com, supporting Vanguard’s shareholder and brokerage services... more

 

Federal prosecutors in the US are set to charge at least ten people over their suspected roles in Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi fraud, according to reports. A source close to the investigation told the Associated Press that the individuals will be formally charged in the coming months. However, they did not reveal whether Mr Madoff's wife, sons or other family members would be the targets of any indictments. Mr Madoff was sentenced to the maximum 150 years in prison on Monday (June 29th)... more

Japan's financial regulators may have to introduce tougher penalties for financial institutions that fail to properly adhere to data protection and anti-money laundering requirements, the country's finance minister has warned. Kaoru Yosano made his comments following a data breach at Japan's largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), which saw a former employee of its brokerage unit allegedly steal records relating to approximately 1.5 million customers, Bloomberg reports. Regulator... more

Developing systems to tackle money laundering is the top priority for global financial institutions when it comes to fighting fraud, a new poll has found. Compliance professionals from 41 countries put anti-money laundering (AML) work as the top issue ahead of terrorist financing, internal fraud, identity theft and insider trading, Tonbeller said. The importance placed on AML reflects a host of national and international efforts to ramp up the fight against the crime, such as the European... more

Wall Street Systems (Wallstreet), the global provider of treasury, trading and settlement solutions and services, today announces the successful go-live of Wallstreet Suite with the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS). NBS chose Wallstreet Suite to help support: · NBS reserve management operations and settlement of ECB reserve management operations · management and comparison of portfolio risk figures to selected benchmark · monetary policy operations including domestic and cross border... more

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), an international financial institution (IFI) owned by eight Nordic countries, has gone live with Misys Opics Plus. The Misys solution will cover the entire bank’s requirement for bank proprietary treasury trading and corporate activity and will operate across all asset classes in the treasury back office. At a time when financing is particularly difficult to arrange, IFIs are looking to play a critical role in ensuring that infrastructure projects continue the... more

Oracle Financial Services Software, a majority-owned subsidiary of Oracle, announced today that National Bank of Cambodia has selected Oracle FLEXCUBE as the banking platform for its operations. As the regulator, National Bank of Cambodia plays an important role in the design and implementation of the financial sector development program for the Kingdom of Cambodia. National Bank of Cambodia’s implementation of a new, integrated core banking system is viewed as a critical component of the... more

Eurobase Insurance Solutions is launching a new and exciting software development to complement its already well established Synergy underwriting solutions range. This ground-breaking development enables every user to bring together the essential real-time information that is needed to support their business role, on a single screen. This includes users within the organisation and users at trusted third parties such as brokers and other trading partners.iSynergy will revolutionise the way in... more

 

Recently Crain's Chicago Business ran an article about the upcoming launch of the ELX Futures exchange and Trading Technologies (TT). The article centers on the notion that “bad blood” between Howard Lutnick (the CEO of BGC Partners) and me is the reason why TT currently has no near-term plans to connect to ELX. Please allow me to address this point.Although TT and BGC Partners have been involved in a legal dispute over the past several years, I don't know of any bad blood between Howard and... more

The Operational Risk Consortium (ORIC) has teamed up with CCH Sword to upgrade its web-based IT platform to capture, aggregate and analyze operational loss events in the insurance and investment industry. ORIC was created by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) in 2005 to help insurers share industry-wide data on operational losses, with a view of improving their measurement and management of operational risk. ORIC has grown over the years, and currently has more than 20 members. CCH Sword... more

Omgeo, the global standard for post-trade efficiency, today announced that the direct connection between the Pre-Settlement Matching System (PSMS) provided by the Japan Securities Depository Center (JASDEC) and Omgeo Central Trade Manager (Omgeo CTM) and OASYS Global – became available on a full scale. Following the start of the direct connection service, PCA Asset Management Limited has adopted the service. PCA Asset Management can now automatically send trade data matched and confirmed in... more

 

CR2 LTD, the global provider of integrated self service banking solutions, has today announced that Absa, a member of the Barclays Group and one of the largest banks in South Africa, has licensed the company’s industry leading self service solution to drive its ATM and POS networks for operations in Tanzania and Mozambique. Absa is rapidly expanding throughout Africa. The bank is reputed for its first to market, innovative product and service delivery. Absa’s decision to adopt CR2’s self... more

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) today announced the appointment of Tom Carey as President of its international securities processing solutions business. He will report directly to John Hogan, President and Chief Operating Officer of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. In his new role, Mr Carey will be responsible for all aspects of Broadridge’s international securities processing business which includes the leading international securities processing solution, Gloss, with its... more

 

DerivActiv, LLC, a leading provider of independent valuations for fixed income, currency, and equity derivatives, to healthcare, non-profit, higher education and corporate clients, announced it has successfully completed a Statement of Auditing Standard No. 70 (SAS 70) Type II certification. “This certification is a more rigorous audit of the SAS 70 processes that we put in place in 2008,” said John Trefethen, chief financial officer of DerivActiv, LLC. “DerivActiv customers can feel... more

BancTec, a leading global provider of advanced, high-volume document and payment processing services and solutions, has made image quality assurance (IQA) a seamless component of its IntelliScan high-speed document scanning solutions, thus meeting the dual requirements of verifiable image quality and high-speed processing. The result is an ability to generate time and cost savings—without sacrificing image quality—for organizations with large document processing operations. Traditionally,... more

Markit, a financial information services company, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of the TZ1 Registry, one of the leading voluntary environmental registries which lists the majority of the world’s voluntary carbon and ecosystem standards. The business will now be known as Markit Environmental Registry.The global market for carbon emissions grew to $126 billion last year, up from $63 billion in 2007 and nearly 12 times the value in 2005, according to a World Bank report. ... more

TSYS (NYSE: TSS) addressed today developments regarding its merchant processing relationship with Bank of America Corporation. Bank of America has indicated to TSYS that it is in the process of formulating its plans with respect to changes in its merchant processing relationship with TSYS but has not yet communicated to TSYS the timing or extent of the deconversion from TSYS’ systems. TSYS provides a number of additional services to Bank of America, including commercial card processing, small... more

On Point Executions LLC, an agency only Broker Dealer, is pleased to announce that their smart option order routing system-STING, will now be on Bloomberg’s EMSX. The process is seamless for a new client. Provide us with your name and UUID#, sign an Electronic Trading Agreement and you can be using our STING route the same day.The On Point STING routing logic uses empirical data to determine which destination will yield the optimal execution. On Point’s proprietary options routing algorithm... more

Kamakura Corporation reported Wednesday that the Kamakura index of troubled public companies made a third consecutive dramatic improvement in June after reaching its worst point, 24.3%, in the current recession in March. The Kamakura global index of troubled companies decreased by 2.4 percentage points to 16.4% of the public company universe in June. Kamakura defines a troubled company as a company whose short term default probability is in excess of 1%. Credit conditions are now better than... more

SmartStream Technologies, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management specialist, today announced a new partnership with EastNets, a leading provider of global compliance and payments solutions and services, and one of the world’s largest SWIFT Service Bureau’s. EastNets, which has more than 1,000 customers and over 250 financial institutions on its Service Bureau, will act as a distributor for TLM OnDemand, offering SmartStream’s SaaS solution to its clients in the Middle East and US. ... more

 

Focus Solutions group plc, an established supplier of enterprise solutions to the financial services industry, today announces a number of significant developments to its TestMeOnline product, to further support advisers and firms on the journey to RDR compliance.The Coaching Platform, Focus’ group training company, has integrated Level 4 workbooks and test questions into TestMeOnline for examination preparation and for evidencing ongoing competence in industry technical knowledge. This will... more

Fascet LLC, a leading provider of enterprise data management solutions, today announced they have become a Premier Partner in the Solution Partner Network of Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), the world’s leader and specialist in hosting. This relationship is intended to provide the financial services industry with a platform that normalizes and securely transmits transactions, positions, and valuation data between parties.Fascet Trade Communicator, a post-trade notification solution that processes any... more

The UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured a restraining order on over $100 million worth of assets linked to Sir Allen Stanford, Stanford International Bank (SIB) and other entities believed to held in London-based financial institutions. In a statement, the department said the order had been taken out following a formal request from the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which has charged the Texas-born financier with defrauding investors of around $7 billion. The funds are thought to have... more

Integrated Asset Services®, LLC (IAS®) a leader in default management and residential collateral valuation, this month celebrated the first anniversary of its IAS360 House Price Index.The IAS360 HPI remains the only index to track U.S. housing trends at a county level. The index tracks monthly change in the median sales price of detached single-family residences in more than 15,000 “neighborhoods” across the U.S., then rolls the data up to 360 counties, nine census divisions, four regions,... more

Nucleus Software Exports Limited (NSE: NUCLEUS, BSE: 531209), provider of integrated software products for banks and financial institutions today announced the successful 'go-live' of its cash management product CASH@Will at Bangkok Bank, Thailand. Bangkok Bank, one of the largest regional banks in South East Asia, with total assets of approximately USD 48 billion has gone live on Nucleus Software's Cash Management product CASH@WillTM and Internet banking product BankONet across its entire... more

Path Solutions, the market leader in the delivery of AAOIFI-certified software solutions to the Islamic finance industry, today announced that Al Jazeera Islamic Co., one of the leading Qatar-based companies specialized in the provision of Islamic consumer financial products to Retail Consumers and SME, has gone live with iMAL Enterprise Banking Solution. According to Khursheed Hassan, CEO Al Jazeera Islamic Co., this implementation represents not only the relevance of iMAL to the local market,... more

Investment Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: ITG), a leading agency broker and financial technology firm, today announced that for the second year in a row it ranked first in the Best Execution Management System (EMS) Provider category in the 2009 Waters Rankings by Waters magazine. Triton secured 30 percent of the votes in the Best EMS category. “Consecutively winning the award for Best EMS further validates the fact that traders continue to prefer the innovative functionality, extensive... more

Hitec Laboratories Ltd, a leading supplier of Risk and Performance, Compliance and Electronic Document Management and Delivery Solutions to the Banking and Finance sector have announced today that Teachers’ Building Society is the latest organisation to adopt their award winning Ten Risk Manager solution.Teachers’ Building Society has been providing Mortgages and Savings products for over 40 years directly to their members. They recognise the importance of having an efficient Risk Framework... more

TradingScreen, Inc. (“TradingScreen”), the provider of premier global execution management systems (EMS), today announced an agreement with Citi to become Citi’s next generation buy-side EMS. TradingScreen’s TradeSmart® EMS will be introduced to Citi’s existing institutional clients who currently leverage the LavaX EMS platform. TradingScreen will also become the preferred front-end EMS technology provider for Citi’s institutional buy-side clients who access Lava order routing... more

More than $100 million in assets held by Texan financier Allen Stanford at a number of financial institutions in London have been seized by British financial investigators.Mr Stanford is expected to hear today (June 30th) if he can be freed on bail ahead of his trial. He was arrested in the US earlier this month for alleged money laundering, multi-billion dollar fraud and obstruction of justice.It is thought the funds currently restricted by the UK's Serious Fraud Office were acquired as part of... more

A lawyer has cautioned that Jersey could be in danger of selling itself as a place where tax evasion is condoned.The Jersey Evening Post reported that crown advocate Matthew Jowitt made the statement during the second day of an extradition hearing for Philip Eric de Figueiredo on Friday (June 26th).He asserted that the Channel Island would look like "a safe haven for tax evaders" if authorities chose not to extradite the 56-year-old to Australia on charges related to money laundering, fraud and... more

SAGE, the Swiss IT firm specialized in the development of wealth management systems, announced today that Global Investment House (Global), the leading asset management and investment banking company in the GCC and MENA, has decided to take on Prospero as its new platform for Portfolio Management, Treasury, Fund Administration and CRM. Centering its operation in Kuwait, Global Investment House started implementing Prospero there at the end of 2008 and is very positive in its response to... more

 

A Manhattan federal court judge has handed a 150-year jail sentence to Bernard Madoff for masterminding a fraud described as "staggering".US district judge Denny Chin asserted that the crimes committed by Madoff - who operated a Ponzi scheme that caused thousands of victims to lose billions of dollars - were "extraordinarily evil" and could not be compared to any previous white-collar criminal actions.In total, nine victims of Madoff's fraudulent operation testified before the judge before he... more

Survey findings released today by Adra Match, the leading supplier of automated reconciliation software, reveal that organisations from the public sector have embraced automated reconciliation more heavily than those in the private sector. According to the survey, which was conducted using a sample of Adra Match’s 3,000-strong Northern European customer base, the public sector, usually seen as very bureaucratic and administration heavy, accounts for two thirds of the firm’s customers.... more

Viveo, a global leader in banking software solutions, today announced that their latest customer, a leading offshore Chinese bank, CITIC Ka Wah Bank, has gone live with Viveo’s innovative VRisk suite to enhance its AML compliance systems.Together with Citic Ka Wah, Viveo has deployed both its customer and transaction screening components to provide a fully comprehensive and high performance compliance solution. Citic Ka Wah has now been running VRisk in its day to day operations since... more

Aia Software leading global supplier of intelligent document composition software today announced it is one of the strong performers in the interactive output segment cited in The Forrester Wave: Document Output For Customer Communications Management, Q2 2009 (DOCCM) report. Aia Software is one of the 12 global vendors meeting Forrester’s Wave participation requirements. The Forrester Research report states “Aia Software drives communications as a business process”. We feel this reflects... more

Zeus Technology, the only software-based application traffic management company, today announced that the Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) software has achieved VMware Ready status. This designation indicates that Zeus' software has passed a detailed evaluation and testing process managed by VMware and is now listed on the VMware Partner Product Catalog.Passing the extensive VMware-specified testing helps ensure that the ZXTM software is compatible with VMware technology and ready for... more

State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), the world’s leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, and International Financial Data Services (IFDS), the international transfer agency joint venture between State Street and DST Systems, Inc., announced today that they have been appointed by Vanguard Investments UK, Limited to provide an extensive range of service solutions for its launch of a UK domiciled fund range.State Street has been appointed to provide custody, fund... more

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, today announced that SAS Group, the leading airline group in Northern Europe, has selected the RSA Data Loss Prevention Suite to help discover and secure sensitive information that resides within the SAS IT environment.The SAS Group has an extensive IT infrastructure from large datacentres to many smaller remote sites. With 40 million passengers and 831 daily departures in 2008, SAS processes and stores vast amounts of sensitive data such as customers’... more

Fidessa group plc (LSE:FDSA), the leading provider of trading systems, market data and global connectivity, today announced that it has been voted Best Sell-side Order Management System (OMS) in the 2009 annual Waters magazine readers’ rankings. This marks the second straight year Fidessa has won top honors in the category.Used by over 85% of tier-one, global brokers, Fidessa’s sell-side OMS provides a resilient and robust solution for trading the world’s financial markets. Fidessa can... more

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) today announced that the company has completed deployment of a low-latency, fiber-optic network connection between New York and Chicago. The network expansion was deployed using the shortest-path routes and advanced electronics to enable high-speed transaction rates with very low transmission delays – a significant service level requirement for financial exchanges and other trading venues."Level 3 designed the low-latency route to support financial... more

Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions announces today at the annual EBA conference in Vienna that it launches a SEPA Direct Debit solution aimed at banks needing a response to SEPA Direct Debit that ensures compliance today – within their own domain or through an outsourced scenario with another clearing bank.SEPA migration has proven to be more complex than the industry envisaged; where the SEPA Credit Transfer... more

Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions announces that it has acquired the Dutch payments consultancy house Ereon. With this acquisition Clear2Pay reinforces its dedication to delivering expertise and solutions to the payments industry at large. Clear2Pay assists banks and other financial institutions with the strategic and operational payments issues they face. Clear2Pay’s consultants operate in a range of functions... more

Real-Time Innovations (RTI), The Real-Time Middleware Experts, today announced strategic enhancements to capitalize on growth for its Data Distribution Service (DDS) compliant middleware. RTI has established a Field Operations organization, which brings together all customer-facing functions: worldwide sales, professional services and customer support. Each team will be under the leadership of industry veteran, Curt Schacker. This organization will put increased emphasis on leveraging RTI’s... more

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that it was chosen as IBM Cognos “OEM Partner of the Year” for its Business Optimization and Data Analytics solutions for financial institutions. IBM selected Fiserv as the top Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) from its various partners in all industries. Fiserv received the award for architecting and delivering exceptional value to its customers by leveraging IBM Cognos®... more

Insurance Technologies has received a distinguished ACORD Accomplishment Early Adopter Award at the 2009 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Orlando, FL. ACORD’s Recognition of Insurance Technologies for the 'Early Adopter Award - Forms' was principally based upon Insurance Technologies implementation of the ACORD 951 form within the VisibleChoiceTM environment. The VisibleChoiceTM multi-carrier annuity sales platform employs a business process which works with ACORD’s standardized... more

Clearing and custody providers RBC Correspondent Services and RBC Advisor Services, divisions of RBC Capital Markets Corporation will implement SunGard’s WealthStation to provide RBC’s correspondent firms and registered investment advisors (RIAs) with an integrated wealth management platform that enhances their ability to acquire, service and grow their client relationships. RBC will roll out the SunGard platform, private-labeled “RBC WealthStation,” to its correspondent and RIA firms... more

QuIC Financial Technologies Inc, a global solutions provider of risk management, pricing and financial analytics, today announced the appointment of Mark Putnam to manage Business Development and support in the Asia Pacific region. This strategic appointment is in direct response to growing global demand for QuIC’s risk management solutions. Based in Sydney, Australia and reporting to the Sales Director North America and Asia, Putnam will focus on driving sales and forging strategic business... more

 

Imagine Software, a leading provider of real-time portfolio and risk management solutions worldwide, today announced Sydney-based Prodigal selected the company’s award-winning Derivatives.com service for its new cross-asset risk management tool.Established in 2005, Prodigal is an Asian hedge fund with the bulk of its portfolio in convertible bonds and equities, credit contracts, options, and FX instruments. Early in 2008, Prodigal began searching for an affordable way to streamline its... more

Derivix, a financial software company providing options pricing, risk visualization and analytics solutions, today announced that it has appointed Richard Schenkman to its Board of Directors. Mr. Schenkman will provide guidance on the company’s go-to-market strategy as the company continues its rapid growth.“Derivix has proven itself as an cutting-edge provider of high-performance options pricing, analytics and risk visualization solutions that allow market participants to make their... more

Triple Point Technology, the leading global provider of multi-market commodity and enterprise risk management software solutions, announced today Commodity XL for Emissions. Commodity XL for Emissions enables organizations to track, manage, analyze, comply and report against all regulatory schemes around the world including the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EUETS), National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS), US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and California Climate Action... more

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced today that Maryann Goebel has joined the company effective today as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, reporting to the CEO.“Maryann’s proven success leading a variety of complex technology environments is a great addition to the aggregate strength of the Fiserv management team,” said Jeffery Yabuki, President and CEO of Fiserv. “Her vast experience as the... more

B2BITS®, EPAM Systems' Capital Markets Competency Center providing tools and technologies for exchange connectivity, OMS and EMS solutions, is pleased to announce the release of a product suite for Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) connectivity – ICE Trade Capture. B2BITS® has developed the product, fully certified with the exchange, to solve the problem many market participants will face as a result of the planned decommissioning of the ICE Java API in November 2009. The product has Java,... more

Delta Informatique has just been chosen by OPT (The Post and Telecommunications Office) of Polynesia for the supply and implementation of its banking software in order to support its new banking services. This result is the fruit of a long selection process guided jointly by OPT and IBM teams. Delta-Bank was compared to other solutions used in France, French overseas departments and territories and in Europe.According to Pascal Guillet of IBM, several criteria were highlighted in order to select... more

Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, today announced that Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the largest U.S. options exchange and creator of listed options, plans to locate electronic trading operations for its all-electronic exchange, currently known as "C2," at the Equinix New York-4 (NY4) International Business Exchange (IBX(r)) data center in Secaucus, NJ. SEC approval of C2 is pending, and CBOE has not yet announced an official launch date for the... more

 

Bernard Madoff faces sentencing for his part in a $50 billion investment fraud today and faces spending the rest of his life in jail.The 71-year-old financier pleaded guilty to 11 charges in March relating to defrauding thousands of people and is due to read a statement before the judge's decision is announced in US District Court in Manhattan today.He will be sentenced for operating a Ponzi scheme in which many investors lost their life savings and could receive a sentence totalling up to 150... more

A member of the board of Swedish firm Studsvik is being investigated over allegations of insider trading and may face prosecution.The company revealed that a prosecutor for the Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau has applied to start proceedings against Jan Barchan, who will not participate in the work of its executive until the case has been processed.Mr Barchan may face charges relating to a 2006 transaction, which the prosecutor claims was made while he knew of an order that was later... more

AssureSign LLC’s Biometric Electronic Signature Technology has been selected as the electronic signature solution by the Carbon Trust Standard Company, a UK-based organization that measures and certifies real carbon reduction by companies. Carbon Trust Standard Company is part of the Carbon Trust, whose mission is to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organizations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.As an organization that works... more

 

Metavante (NYSE:MV), a leading provider of banking and payments technology, today announced that Union State Bank has implemented technology from Metavante Corporation to streamline teller capture workflow. Established in 1928, Union State Bank is a full-service financial institution headquartered in Florence, Texas.Union State Bank is deploying Metavante’s Direct Teller solution, a distributed capture product that allows bankers to image-capture and balance check deposits at the teller... more

ITRS Group plc is pleased to announce that ADG Holdings LLP (ADG) has gone live with ITRS Geneos. ITRS is the leading global provider of real-time predictive operational systems management products to the world’s financial community.London-based ADG is a rapidly growing proprietary trading, market-making and brokerage house with an increasing number of client portfolios. The continued expansion of the company was placing additional requirements on operations and technical support staff to... more

 

Viteos Fund Services, a global hedge fund administrator and middle office outsourcing operations service provider, today announced the launch of the Viteos Managed Account Platform. The platform is designed to meet hedge funds’ increasing demand for administration and middle office services for managed accounts. It provides a holistic processing solution to meet the additional processing and reporting challenges associated with running managed accounts.Managed account platforms and... more

ID Business Solutions Ltd (IDBS), a leading provider of innovative data management solutions to multinational R&D organisations, announced on 26 of June that it had concluded an unconditional agreement to acquire InforSense Ltd (InforSense), a company providing award-winning scientific and business intelligence (BI) technologies, in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition will complete in July.R&D organisations in the public and private sectors rely upon their ability to capture, integrate and... more

Bravura Solutions, supplier of wealth management applications and professional services, and Thunderhead, today announced they have signed a global referral agreement, giving Thunderhead the opportunity to supply its software to Bravura clients, offering an integrated enterprise solution for producing multi-channel member communications.Under the terms of the agreement, Bravura’s clients will be able to take advantage of Thunderhead’s powerful enterprise communications platform, Thunderhead... more

Northdoor, an independent IT consultancy and provider of full lifecycle solutions primarily to the financial services industry, has today announced that the newly launched W. R. Berkley Syndicate 1967, has selected Northdoor's N-DEX Suite of insurance underwriting and messaging solutions. The software is especially designed for the Lloyd's of London insurance market.N-DEX Suite went live at W. R. Berkley Syndicate 1967 in good time for when the firm commenced underwriting on 1st June. The... more

XData signed an agreement with Euroland, the Sweden-based marketwatch web-portal available in 14 languages, to distribute real-time data feeds from selected MEA venues. Under the agreement, XData will be the data provider of real-time streaming market data from the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Dubai and Kuwait Stock Exchange. The data includes all the listed stock prices, indices and trading volumes.Euroland will access the market data via XData’s real-time information dissemination... more

Neonet, the global provider of agency brokerage services and trading technology, today announces that buy-side clients may now utilize Neonet's advanced trading platform to access the UBS suite of trading strategies for equities execution. UBS is the most recent addition to Neonet's EMS broker access offering.Neonet's Execution Management Systems (EMS) enables traders to effectively manage their trading. It gives the buy-side trader a consolidated view and improved work-flow by not having to... more

Transoft International, the leading provider of currency supply chain management solutions, announced today that Woodforest Financial Group has chosen Transoft’s OptimizeCF currency management software for ATM and Branch cash management.OptimizeCF, the only currency supply chain solution built from the ground up as a true Software as a Service (SaaS) application will be used to automate cash forecasting, cost balancing, ordering, monitoring, expense tracking and more for Woodforest Financial... more

Xignite, Inc., the leading cloud services provider of on-demand global financial market data and application components, today announced the release of XigniteOnDemand, the industry’s first platform for private-labeled delivery of market data through on-demand web services, marking a major industry innovation in the way market data is distributed.By taking advantage of XigniteOnDemand, exchanges, multilateral trading facilities, brokers and other data owners can quickly launch extensions to... more

Xignite, Inc., the cloud services provider of on-demand global financial market data and application components, today announced the release of XigniteCorporateActions, a new web service that delivers data on demand on key corporate actions such as mergers and acquisitions, stock splits and dividend awards. The new service enables companies to integrate these critical events into their systems and models to better manage risk and make faster, more informed asset management decisions.... more

Safe Banking Systems Software, LLC, an innovative provider of anti-money laundering and compliance solutions, saw something and said something by identifying last week several terrorists and pilots connected to drug kingpins that retained their federal aviation licenses in spite of being suspected or convicted of crimes that posed a risk to security. The information was brought to the attention of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who... more

Harland Financial Solutions Worldwide Limited announced today the release of Rating Manager, the latest addition to the CreditQuest® risk and credit management software suite. Rating Manager is a flexible solution that enables financial institutions to improve and streamline the process of performing credit risk rating using Basel II-compliant internal rating models. Using definable workflows, it automates retrieval of existing data, guides judgmental data entry and routes the rating to... more

Incentage AG has become the first provider in 2009 to be awarded the SWIFTReady Financial EAI Label. The SWIFTReady Label 2009 certification once again confirms that the IMS Incentage Middleware Suite, Incentage’s EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) solution, fulfils the very strict criteria which SWIFT requires of its partners’ solutions. Incentage has been awarded the SWIFTReady Label every year since its inception.Incentage has again been awarded the SWIFTReady Financial EAI Label... more

 

Markit, a financial information services company, today announced the forthcoming launch of a family of sovereign credit default swap (CDS) indices that will track investor perceptions of the credit risk of a range of countries around the world. Historically, the trading of sovereign CDS was limited to emerging markets, reflecting the credit risk associated with the government debt of these countries. However, an actively traded CDS market in industrialised sovereigns has now emerged as a... more

Tbricks, the provider of the leading edge algorithmic trading system, today announced that it has added Xetra to its growing list of native market connections.Tbricks is a comprehensive manual and automated trading system offering groundbreaking technology to the most ambitious proprietary trading professionals.Urs Rutschmann, COO of Tbricks, comments: “Tbricks beats any other system in terms of speed, scalability and customizability. Tbricks has been designed for multi location and... more

 

Optial announced today that the Bank of England has selected Optial’s Audit Management module from the Optial Operational Risk Management platform, to support its internal audit processes. Chris O’Brien, CEO of Optial, said “Internal Audit departments are fundamental in helping organisations achieve their stated objectives. To do this, a robust and secure system is essential to support a systematic methodology for tracking and managing audits, findings, recommendations and agreed... more

European commissioner Charlie McCreevy is reluctant to back new measures aimed at bringing in new accounting standards for the European Union's (EU) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).According to Accountancy Age, Mr McCreevy is unhappy with the regulations, which are designed to bring accounting standards for small businesses throughout the world into line and which have already been endorsed by the US and several emerging countries.A spokesman for Mr McCreevy told the publication that... more