Rob Jagde joins Anvil as Technical Consultant and George Callas as Sales Executive. Both were formerly at IDT Horizon, the US domestic repo trading system company.

A seasoned technical consultant, Jagde spent eight years as a systems architect at Horizon and brings to Anvil extensive knowledge and expertise in system engineering. Working with Anvil’s established product control and management groups, he has been tasked with reviewing the architecture of the flagship ARTS and Denarius products with a view to further enhancing their market-leading performance.

Callas, who spent two years at Horizon, is a specialist in business and relationship building. He brings to Anvil a deep understanding of client needs founded in many years’ experience as a trader in repo and other financial markets.

Both Jagde and Callas pointed to Anvil’s superior products and progressive corporate culture as determining factors in their decision to join the company.

"Anvil’s customer base is growing and, perhaps more crucially, Anvil’s customers are very happy with Anvil," said Jagde. "Add to that the clear strategic vision of the company and its policy of keeping bureaucracy to a minimum and this was a great move for me."

Callas concurred, commenting: "What first attracted me to Anvil was the consistent, client-focused approach that is evident throughout Anvil. As I learned more about the company it was not a surprise to discover that there has not been a single client migration away from Anvil and that the company has been profitable every year."

Phil Buck, CEO, Anvil North America welcomed the two new appointments, saying, "I am delighted to bring two such experienced regional experts on board as we continue our expansion into North America. I believe Anvil’s success is due to our core commitment to people as well as technology. It is gratifying that this approach has enabled us to attract people of this calibre. I look forward to their contribution to our future growth."

Seperately, Anvil Software and ADP Brokerage Services Group, a division of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP), today announced a joint product initiative to provide the most comprehensive straight-through-processing solution for US domestic repo and securities finance on the market.

The new initiative will work on the seamless integration of Anvil’s ARTS suite of front- and middle-office trading tools with the ICI/ADP impact back-office system, enabling mutual customers to reap the benefits of full STP.

Commenting on the initiative, Phil Buck, CEO, Anvil North America said, "As the leaders in our respective fields, Anvil and ADP are the natural choices for serious repo and securities finance participants. This initiative will make that choice clearer still by ensuring that North American repo desks are able to install Anvil ARTS, confident of seamless integration, lower implementation costs and faster project realisation."

J. Michael Hopkins, General Manager, ICI/ADP added, "We have successfully worked with Anvil on customized integration of our products at numerous client sites. This initiative builds on that relationship, enabling us to service more efficiently the growing demand for Anvil/ADP-based STP solutions in the repo and securities finance markets."

Anvil has mapped ARTS trade ticket specification to ICI/ADP message formats and developed an interface module between ARTS and the ICI/ADP impact fixed income transaction processing system. The module handles:

• Real-time trade ticket feed from ARTS to impact covering mid-life events such as reprices, partial returns, call/close
• Initial trade upload from impact including historic mid-life events
• Security static upload from impact
• Triparty ticket feed
• Position upload from impact

In addition, Anvil and ADP will take a pro-active role in client site integration projects, thus alleviating some of the project management burden associated with attempting to co-ordinate multiple system vendors.

Anvil’s North American client base includes Mizuho, Bank of America, ING, ABN Amro, RBC and others.