Misys has acquired Crossmar Matching Services, the foreign exchange and money market confirmation system, from Citicorp for $13 million cash.
The core CMS management team - including CTO Raymond English, sales and marketing director Gilmore Bray, vice president Cynthia Anasson and product manager John Hawkins - will be among more than 50 staff transferred to Misys Wholesale Banking Systems under the deal. International offices will be merged with existing Misys offices in New York, London, Tokyo and Singapore, says the vendor.
CMS provides a confirmation matching service aimed primarily at foreign exchange/money market (FX/MM) transactions between banks, their corporate customers and fund managers. The CMS matching engine handles in excess of $100bn of FX/MM transactions for over 750 customers worldwide.
Ivan Martin, chief executive of the Misys Banking and Securities Division, says the addition of Crossmar complements the vendor's experience in handling interparty trades via the interbank Swift network and will provide added impetus to the development of future Application Service Provider (ASP)-based services across other Misys banking solutions.
He says: "The need for independent trade confirmation is more urgent than ever. With intense pressure from regulators to keep trading and back office operations clearly separated, the CMS offering is an essential tool for those engaged in FX/MM transactions."
Gilmore Bray of CMS, adds: "Misys will enable us to broaden the financial instruments matched on CMS, enhance functionality, and provide clients with seamless interaction with counterparties and internal systems."