Misys Signs Major Banking Software Contract with WestDeutsche Landesbank
Misys plc (Misys) subsidiary, Summit Systems Inc. (Summit), has signed one of its largest banking software contracts with The Global Financial Markets division of Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB). The bank selected Summit for a major consolidation of its systems environments in its London, Düsseldorf, Tokyo and New York offices. The phased implementation, that has commenced with a successful ‘go-live’ in London, will conclude in Q1 2004.
Summit will provide front-office trading support for a wide array of financial instruments including FX and FX options, money markets, credit derivatives, interest-rate derivatives, fixed income, and bond options. While traders profit from the advantages of real-time FX and bond trading, operations professionals will benefit from Summit’s powerful derivatives back-office processing.
In addition to saving costs and providing new capabilities, Summit will allow the bank to retire a number of current systems including legacy software products from Murex, Front Capital and Sungard FX. More than 600 users will benefit from the new platform’s sophisticated real-time trading, risk management and back office capabilities.
John Le Hunte, sales manager at Summit’s London office, observed: “This is a major win for us in terms of underscoring our ability to help large institutions gain the functionality they need whilst simultaneously cutting maintenance and transaction costs. We look forward to further expanding our relationship with WestLB during the coming year.”
Commenting on the decision to move to an integrated platform, Gerd Boerker, an executive director at WestLB and head of IT and e-commerce, remarked: “Historically, WestLB has implemented ‘best-of-breed’ solutions from several financial software vendors. Unfortunately best-of-breed entails high maintenance costs and narrow scope, so several different front, middle, and back-office systems were required to adequately address all of our needs.”
“We decided to see if an integrated software suite was available that offered a better, more cost-effective alternative to the best-of-breed approach. After examining available products from the leading vendors, our exhaustive testing revealed only one vendor that could provide the front-to-back capabilities and instrument support we needed and that was Summit. A key deciding factor for us was the established relationship and high level of service experienced with Summit dating back to 1997.”
Jayesh Patel, global head of technology for the Global Financial Markets groups, added:
“What I found especially compelling is Summit’s ability to combine rich cross-asset business capabilities with a high-performance distributed architecture. We can scale the system, extend features, or add real-time business services as needs dictate.”
“What I found especially compelling is Summit’s ability to combine rich cross-asset business capabilities with a high-performance distributed architecture. We can scale the system, extend features, or add real-time business services as needs dictate.”
“That kind of power and flexibility makes possible the elimination of many specialised software products. As redundant systems are retired, so too are their maintenance and training fees. If you add in the transaction cost savings inherent in wide-scale process automation then we’re looking at some very significant savings.”
Patel continued, saying: “The idea that system consolidation means giving up functionality is false. In reality, we’re gaining a host of new functions such as real-time trade entry and position keeping. Summit’s consultants have provided us with even more features through tailoring elements of the system to provide proprietary bond pricing, collateral management and FX option pricing features. These changes were completed and included in the initial implementation that took just 3 months to complete.”
About West LB
With total assets of more than €350 billion, WestLB AG is one of the leading providers of financial services in Germany. As an internationally operating commercial bank it maintains branches, representative offices and subsidiaries in over 35 countries and employs approximately 8,700 people around the world, 3,800 of whom work outside Germany (as of 30 June 2002).
With total assets of more than €350 billion, WestLB AG is one of the leading providers of financial services in Germany. As an internationally operating commercial bank it maintains branches, representative offices and subsidiaries in over 35 countries and employs approximately 8,700 people around the world, 3,800 of whom work outside Germany (as of 30 June 2002).
The Global Financial Markets group is a vital part of WestLB, responsible for the bank's FX, money market, loan syndication, debt capital markets, bond trading, emerging markets, and interest and currency derivatives businesses, as well as associated research products.
WestLB AG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Landesbank NRW, a bank under public law. Its shareholders are the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (43.2%), the Savings Banks and Giro Associations of the Rhineland and Westphalia-Lippe (16.7% each) and the Regional Associations of the Rhineland and Westphalia-Lippe (11.7% each).
Enquiries:
Lisa J Newman
Head of Communications
Misys plc
Tel: +44(0)207 368 2315
Head of Communications
Misys plc
Tel: +44(0)207 368 2315
About Misys
Misys, 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.
Misys, 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.
Summit Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Misys with headquarters in New York and full-service offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney, is a recognized 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.
