The bank upgraded to the BankFusion-based solution so that it could bring new products and services to market more rapidly and meet its business expansion goals.

Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V. (ATB) is a fully-owned subsidiary of Alfa Bank, one of the largest Russian private financial-industrial conglomerates and a long-standing Equation customer. ATB functions as the financial gateway between Russia, CIS and West-European markets. The bank presents a unique combination of smooth processing of transactions, efficient products and services based on a well-established network in the banking community in these markets, offering:
 Transaction and Cash Management based on an advanced e-banking system
 Corporate Finance (including Trade Finance Services, structured Commodity Finance and Asset-backed Finance)
 Treasury, also products in Rouble, or other CIS currencies
 Corporate Lending

ATB offers multilingual staff (Russian and other CIS, Western languages) for the above mentioned products.

ATB successfully implemented Misys BankFusion Equation, the latest version of Misys Equation, in less than five months. The new version has been re-architected into an SOA environment based on Misys' revolutionary BankFusionTM platform. The bank now has better security and risk management capabilities and the flexibility to scale the business at the pace it requires.

"BankFusion Equation is a truly world-class solution that will bring us tangible benefits in the way we run our business and bring new products to market," states Henny te Beest, CFO and Managing Director, Amsterdam Trade Bank. "We have had a very successful partnership with Misys and this latest solution supports the future business of the bank. It gives us additional functionality for our lending requirements, as well as the flexibility to change our processes quickly and to respond to market demands more effectively."

Misys BankFuskFusion Equation will allow ATB to bring innovative products and services to market quickly - something that would normally take months of development with existing core banking systems. The bank will also be able to tailor and modify business processes to its exact requirements, significantly improving operational efficiency.

"ATB is the first bank to go live with the ground-breaking BankFusion Equation solution, comments Al-Noor Ramji, EVP and General Manager of Misys. "We are delighted that ATB is taking full advantage of the revolutionary technology. Our Early Adopter Programme team and the bank have worked hard to go live with the solution in less than five months. The smooth transition from Equation to BankFusion Equation gives ATB a continuous migration path that minimises risk and enables them to react faster to market and customer demands while protecting its investment in the core."

Separately, BBAC, a leading Lebanese commercial bank with branches in Cyprus and Iraq, has chosen an integrated solution of Misys BankFusion Equation and Opics Plus to increase revenues and enhance operations.

BBAC's main lines of service include retail banking, corporate banking, treasury and investment. The bank recently reviewed solutions from various vendors to streamline operations further and re-engineer critical processes. Based on its positive experiences as a long-time user of Misys solutions, BBAC chose Misys as its vendor.

"Over the past few months we have been evaluating a number of solutions to optimise our operations and reduce costs," states Ghassan Assaf, Chairman, BBAC SAL. "Although we have been a Misys customer since 1994 and are impressed by the track record of their systems, we decided to be objective and consider other vendors as well. Misys proved to be the best option for us with the ground-breaking BankFusion technology matching our future needs. We expect this solution to prevent human errors and speed up transactions and are looking forward to passing on the benefits to our customers as we start to experience the value of BankFusion Equation and Opics Plus."

"We are delighted that BBAC has chosen to invest in our SOA-based solutions, which will greatly enhance the functionality of their infrastructure and existing systems," added Roy Froud, Director - Middle East & Africa, Misys. "The bank will have access to our cutting-edge technologies that continue to set us apart from our competitors and builds a great foundation for their future growth."

Misys BankFusion Equation provides re-usable components covering multiple retail banking instruments including lending, deposits, and payments. It supports business and enterprise banking needs such as treasury and trade services and will play a key role in integrating BBAC's existing systems. The bank will be able to launch new products and services rapidly, reduce the time taken for process and product changes, improve governance and keep risk and cost to a minimum.

Misys Opics Plus is the .NET-based Treasury and Capital Markets solution which will deliver front-to-back office, cross-asset processing of multiple financial instruments for BBAC. It will enable the bank to manage vanilla and complex derivatives, fixed income, and equity and treasury trades all in the single system.