Thomson Financial and Business Architects target European wealth managers

Under the terms of the agreement, Thomson Financial will embed Business Architects' eXimius workbench functionality within its Thomson ONE framework. This draws on Thomson Financial's industry leading wealth management and investment management capabilities to provide a full, front-office workflow solution for European wealth management clients. This includes relationship managers, fund managers, portfolio managers, compliance and senior management.

Julian Chaffey, European Wealth Management Director, Thomson Financial commented: "We are pleased to have signed an agreement with Business Architects which will significantly extend our capabilities to serve the European wealth management community. The combination of our market leading content and trading applications with Business Architects' front office workbench application will enable us to provide an unmatched service that addresses all requirements of wealth management clients. This builds on the success we have already achieved in North America."

The integration of Thomson Financial's investment decision-support services and the front office work bench application from Business Architects creates a unique proposition for the private client wealth manager, which in turn will help them address critical business drivers such as:

• Delivering enhanced performance for clients
• Responding efficiently to client demands and keeping them engaged
• Providing appropriate risk controls
• Ensuring compliance at all levels (regulatory, firm, customer preferences)
• Enabling wealth managers to focus on client service

Thomson Financial believes there is significant opportunity to help wealth management firms address business drivers through an integrated approach. The individual components that will be deployed are all leading–edge in themselves. Bringing them together adds a further layer of attraction that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Core features of the service will include:

• Client relationship management tools - to track all firm-client interaction and undertake client due diligence.
• Financial planning - to undertake needs analysis, life event goals planning and understand client investment requirements.
• Portfolio management system - to enable management of all client portfolios.
• Performance measurement & attribution.
• Web access – to allow end-clients to view their portfolios remotely.
• Trade execution – via Thomson Retail Service Provider (RSP) Gateway.
• Market leading content and application tools – in Thomson ONE clients can access Thomson Datastream’s encyclopaedic databases, alongside Thomson Financial's global real-time market data and news, and extensive estimates, research and fundamental content.

The new European private client management offering will build upon the expertise that Thomson Financial's has developed in North America, where it has attained a market leading position. Its deployment of wealth management solutions includes the industry's most comprehensive contract whereby Thomson Financial implemented the rollout of 23,000 workstations at more than 550 Merrill Lynch offices. This success was based on Thomson Financial's ability to combine the full breadth and depth of its market data alongside proprietary advisory tools seamlessly integrated into a single and comprehensive workflow solution.

Peter Schramme, Senior Vice President Investment Management at Business Architects concluded: "We are delighted to be working with Thomson Financial. It is clear that Thomson's leading portfolio of workflow applications and market leading content, trade execution and distribution tools will significantly enhance the eXimius front office workbench. This partnership really brings the eXimius concept of a single integrated workbench to the next level."