The agreement results in the introduction of Misys Wealth Management, a new solution that will help both new and existing customers penetrate the growing mass affluent retail customer segment and bring a full set of services to a new set of clients in that market.

Finantix Components for Wealth Management are to be pre-integrated with several of Misys’ core solutions, including Opics Plus, Equation, Midas Plus and all future solutions developed on the new Misys BankFusion platform. This combines flexible, comprehensive, front-office wealth management components with proven back-office transactional systems that manage accounting, settlement and reporting requirements for products supported in the front office.  The first of the suite of wealth management solutions will become available early 2009.  Banks will be able to vastly increase the wealth management services that they give their clients, improving customer insight and enhancing their ability to manage portfolios and provide financial planning advice.

The wealth management market has been identified by a variety of industry commentators as one of the key growth areas for the financial services sector. The majority of mass affluent and high net worth individuals are currently only being serviced by specialist providers, such as brokers, investment managers and financial advisors. Private and retail banks are looking to broaden their offerings to capture a share of the market and new entrants are jostling for leadership.

The research and consulting firm, TowerGroup believes that, in the long term, consumers will benefit as advisors and wealth managers take a more holistic approach to managing clients' assets. The result will be the continued investment in advisors and the tools they use to manage clients and their assets.

“The combination of our world-leading back-office systems and Finantix‘s highly sophisticated front-end components will give our existing clients the ability to penetrate the market which traditionally was the domain of a select group of private banks,” states Guy Warren, EVP and General Manager, Misys Banking. “We can help our customers to strengthen their market position, leapfrog their competitors and broaden the services they provide their retail customers to incorporate wealth management support. This partnership extends our capabilities, allows us to expand our client base into the wealth management sector and increases our speed to capitalise on that market.”

Banks will benefit from the integrated solution by being able to achieve better quality relationships, while maintaining and improving client care at minimal cost. It will give them both client identification, asset allocation planning and portfolio analysis tools through a rich financial information portal as well as a robust, proven back-office transaction management and processing capability.

“Misys has a market-leading customer base.” adds Alessandro Tonchia, strategy director, Finantix. “With its domain knowledge and long history of success in the banking sector, coupled with our rich, client-centric front end, we can now offer an end-to-end wealth solution to customers worldwide. In the current climate, our advisory and financial planning tools, along with our strong sales functionality, are very relevant to banks and their clients. And Misys’ core banking engines provide a solid foundation and an implementation accelerator for a best-of-breed wealth management solution.”