London, 13 January 2004 - Misys Wholesale Banking Systems today announced that Westpac New Zealand (NZ) has gone live with Midas Compliance Watch. Westpac NZ is one of the first banks in the region to embrace the need for more stringent anti-money laundering processes. In line with regulatory requirements, Compliance Watch will give the bank the ability to screen all inward and outward financial messages for individuals, companies or organisations appearing on published lists of known or suspected criminals and terrorists.

Other banks in the Asian and Australasian markets will take similar measures to comply with national legislation, but also with international initiatives such as the Financial Action Task Force reinforced by peer group pressure. New Zealand has already introduced its own legislation concerning anti-terrorist and criminal financing.

 

Says Peter Thomas, Head of International Operations, Westpac NZ, "We are committed to being a leader in the area of suppression of terrorist financing. As a result of legislative changes in New Zealand, and the increasing requirement to comply with global standards published by FATF (Financial Action Task Force), Westpac NZ have taken the initiative to introduce automated tracking software to protect the bank and its customers from any potential terrorist financing. Westpac wanted an application that would protect its financial markets and international payments business, be easily integrated in to its infrastructure and be robust enough to meet local and legislation, both today and in the future."

 

"As a result, we purchased Midas Compliance Watch to add to our suite of other Midas products. We selected this system because it was easily integrated into our infrastructure and Misys has a proven track record delivering leading edge technology to Westpac. We have been extremely happy with the implementation of Midas Compliance Watch, which is now fully operational and positions Westpac at the forefront of anti-terrorist financing in the New Zealand market."

Sara Toal / Adelaide Harrison
Write Image
+44 (0)20 7959 5400
sara@write-image.co.uk / adelaide.harrison@write-image.co.uk

 

Ian Giles

Head of Marketing

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems

+44 (0)20 8486 1508

The complete Compliance Watch solution fully integrates anti-money laundering techniques with existing back office processes and reduces the need for manual effort.  Midas Compliance Watch covers three key areas: Watch list checking (such as the USA's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of known terrorists and criminals), suspicious activity detection and due diligence/KYC (Know Your Customer).  A sophisticated case management tool enables banks' compliance officers to follow up on any items identified as suspicious.

 

Westpac has been operating in New Zealand since 1861 and is New Zealand's largest full service bank with 1.3 million customers.  Westpac providers a full range of retail and commercial financial services, including home and business lending, funds management and treasury services.  The bank offers financial services to corporate and institutional customers through Westpac Institutional Bank, including finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, financial markets, transaction and international trade services. 

 

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems is a trusted provider of innovative technology solutions to wholesale banks. Our years of experience have equipped us with the market knowledge to anticipate our customers' needs and the expertise to develop ways of meeting them.

 

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems has a network of 30 offices around the world, staffed by over 1,000 employees who have built up a high level of domain expertise, allowing our world-class solutions to be delivered with an understanding of customers' local requirements.

 

Our staff are committed to developing and supporting a product family that embraces trade finance, international banking, treasury & capital markets, confirmation matching, continuous linked settlement (CLS), private banking, ebanking, middleware and financial messaging.

 

Our focus is on our customers, building long-term partnerships to help them grow and develop.

 

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, Misys reported revenues in excess of £1 billion ($1.5 billion) for the year ended 31 May 2003.