F&C, with approximately £100 billion under management, serves a wide range of institutional and private clients. The firm wanted to replace its existing environment of two securities processing systems with a single operational model and infrastructure that could scale to meet future business demand globally.

As a result, F&C selected SmartStream's TLM Trade Process Management to deliver a single platform capable of processing equities, derivatives, FX and MM transactions in a consistent and coordinated manner. The TLM solution will manage the trade from point of execution through to confirmations via the Omgeo CTM matching utility. To reduce operational risk and cost and to ensure F&C meets internal and customer SLAs and market deadlines, TLM Trade Process Management will deliver cross-asset, pre-emptive exception management and alerting.

The SmartStream solution also provides a flexible platform for future development due to an agile design that enables processes to be easily adapted and extended to cover new transaction types such listed futures and OTC derivatives.

Luc Leclerq, Head of Operations, IT and Projects at F&C, commented: "With TLM Trade Process Management we now have a window into our middle and back office activity, supporting our drive for greater post-trade efficiency. By replacing legacy systems we can optimise our post trading platform, reduce operational costs and improve risk management."

Richard Cummings, EVP at SmartStream Technologies, stated: "The middle and back performs a critical control function, however many are under utilised due to a mixture of legacy systems and manual processes that also introduce unnecessary risk and cost. Using TLM Trade Process Management to replace a variety of systems and processes, F&C will have a single, scalable processing platform that delivers enhanced visibility and control to its post-trade operations."