New York - Summit Systems today announced that the Federal Home Loan Bank  (FHLB) Boston has decided to implement the Summit system to manage the bank's investment and funding portfolios along with its associated hedging activities. A phased rollout will be conducted with the assistance of Summit's Consulting Services Group and is planned to conclude in Q4 of 2004.

The new integrated software platform will provide the bank with a real-time STP environment that includes comprehensive trading, risk management, and back-office processing support for a wide array of fixed income securities (including mortgage-backed), money market instruments, and interest-rate derivatives.

 

According to Kelly LaCava, Vice President Information Technology, "The operational inefficiencies associated with operating and maintaining a number of product-specific applications is undesirable for any bank. We needed to simplify our processes and environment by standardising on a single front-to-back STP software platform. Upon conclusion of our vendor evaluation, Summit was the clear choice."

 

"With Summit," LaCava said, "we expect to realise substantial operating efficiencies by consolidating multiple systems while reducing manual processes. But to extract maximum value you need to apply STP across all the instruments you work with, and Summit enables us to do exactly that." 

Asked what convinced the bank that Summit was the best answer for their needs, Frank Nitkiewicz, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer replied succinctly: "Demonstrated 'out-of-the-box' functionality, front-to-back cross-asset support for the simplest to most complex deal structures, the ability to significantly simplify and automate workflow processes, and a strong track record of successful system implementations."

"Going forward," Carolyn Hodges, First Vice President and Controller, added, "we'll be collaborating with Summit in a development partnership to enhance their FAS 133 functionality in response to the bank's FAS 133 reporting needs, and I'm very confident about the success of that project."

 

Ahmet Bilgen, Associate Director of Sales at Summit, commented: "FHLB Boston is an example of the type of client we very much enjoy working with. They recognise that technology infrastructure, wisely deployed, can pay large dividends in terms of value and cost efficiencies. Summit looks forward to a long and mutually prosperous relationship with the bank."

 

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (www.fhlbboston.com) is a $45 billion, cooperatively owned wholesale bank for housing finance in the six New England states. Its mission is to support the residential-mortgage and community-development lending activities of its members, which include over 460 financial institutions across New England.

To accomplish its mission, the Bank utilizes private-sector capital to provide members and other qualified customers with reliable access to low-cost wholesale funds, liquidity, a competitive outlet for the sale of loans, special lending programs, technical assistance, and other products and services.

 

Summit Systems is a recognised worldwide leader in providing front-to-back transaction processing support for fixed income, treasury, derivatives and commercial lending businesses. It provides integrated trading, operations and enterprise risk management software to banks, financial institutions, and capital markets participants worldwide. Summit, with headquarters in New York and full-service offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Sydney, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Misys plc, a world leader in banking software solutions.

 

Misys plc, one of the world's largest software solutions companies, serves customers in the international banking and securities, US healthcare, and UK retail financial services sectors. Employing over 6,500 staff, the group partners with its customers to deliver outstanding products to essential industries. Misys reported revenues in excess of £1 billion ($1.5 billion) for the year ended 31 May 2003.