Dutch custodian KAS Bank has implemented Accurate Software's operational risk management solution to reconcile securities transactions throughout its global operations.
The bank is already using the package to reconcile statement of holdings. Individual transaction statements will be passed through system from next month. KAS Bank also plans to migrate the reconciliation of its payment messages to Accurate.
Bart Mantje, senior manager of administration & reconciliation at KAS Bank, says: "The deployment of Accurate's operational risk management solution has dramatically increased the speed at which we now match our securities positions and resolve exceptions. In addition, the clearer insight we have into our daily trading position is helping us to minimise our exposure to operational risk, and so reduce the capital adequacy reserves we will need to allocate under the Basel II Accord."
The bank selected the Accurate software from a shortlist of three following a lengthy evaluation. With over €220 billion in custody, 600 accounts worldwide and more than seven million settlement transactions processed each year, speed and flexibility were key criteria.
Mantje says: "We needed a customisable solution, combined with an excellent reporting capability, that could be easily implemented into our existing business systems, a challenge in itself in our bespoke, mainframe-based environment."
Following selection the migration from KAS Bank's previous system to the Accurate solution was completed in just four months.
Unlike KAS Bank's previous system which reconciled trading positions once a month, the Accurate solution enables the bank to reconcile statements on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Mantje says the success of the implementation has led the bank to extend the use of the software to the reconciliation of its statement of transactions thereby highlighting individual failed transactions.
Speaking about this latest project, which goes live in October, Mantje concludes: "When we go live with the statement of transactions reconciliation we will have progressed from an outdated, slow reconciliation process to a rapid, automated reconciliation of both securities holdings and transactions in less than a year."