Standard Chartered, awarded global bank of the year 20061, chose Sophis RISQUE to support its new and ambitious equity derivatives activity, to be based in Singapore and Hong Kong and covering all major Asian markets. The bank has gone live with Sophis's full front-to-back offering, taking advantage of the firm's STP capabilities for OTC products and is managing its risks in the platform, as well as using the VaR and reporting modules.

Bernard Yu, Global Head of Equity Derivatives at Standard Chartered said: "We are expanding into the fast-evolving Asian equity derivatives market and with Sophis RISQUE to support our venture we will be able to rapidly build out a strong business. We selected Sophis as its solution for equity derivatives was the clear market leader and we were particularly impressed by the system's comprehensive product coverage and its STP capabilities. We also appreciated the firm's commitment to innovation, shown particularly in its Structure Builder tool. This will enable our traders to develop a regular supply of new structures and hybrids quickly and easily, underpinning our ambitious growth strategy for equity derivatives in the region. With very ambitious deadlines set-up for this project, we were very impressed by Sophis's ability to deliver the project on time and on budget.''

Corinne Grillet, COO for Asia Pacific, Sophis, said: "Equity derivatives are one of our key areas of expertise and we relished the opportunity to work with Standard Chartered to support its expansion in this area. Completing this project in four months is a true achievement as it was very challenging both in terms of business requirements and IT. The combination of our dominant position in this asset class and our local presence in the Asian markets provided a winning combination for Standard Chartered, which is now well placed to rapidly establish itself as a key player in Asian equity derivatives."