This will allow parties involved in documentation drafting and the exchange of trade details to utilise the functionality of Microsoft Word 2003 to maximise efficiency around straight through processing.

As WordML is based on XML, the structure of these Word documents allows Scrittura users to make unlimited edits to negotiated documents from within Scrittura DocGenerator. Scrittura WordML eliminates the need for highly complex documents to be drafted manually each time a transaction is completed as the solution enables a bank of reusable templates and clauses to be developed, enhancing efficiency but also allowing the document to be properly represented on a user's screen.

Importantly, amendments can be made by the actual individual drafting the document, limiting reliance on the IT team's role in the process and therefore enhancing the speed at which a trade is agreed and confirmed. Consequently highly structured documents can be managed, negotiated and controlled within the Scrittura Workflow without formatting difficulties or loss of document control via the Import/Export utility.

Once amendments have been passed from both sides, the Scrittura Auditing tool makes a record of the changes and provides a report that is external to the reports in Microsoft Word, allowing trading companies to leverage the benefits of straight through processing. Available in release 4.1.1, the WordML functionality also allows the creation and editing of templates that can be stored and managed with DocManager. These templates can be used alongside existing templates in other formats allowing the technology to be adopted without wholesale changes to existing documents.

Following ISDA's initiatives for the industry as a whole to deploy technical solutions to help them reach the proposed processing efficiencies and reduce operational risk, institutions are under more pressure than ever to streamline their processes around documentation confirmation. Scrittura offers financial institutions a way of minimising operational risk as trades can be finalised and confirmed much faster and institutions can report more accurately on where there risk currently lies at any given time. Because trades are finalised faster via STP, this allows better management of capital adequacy requirements, therefore helping institutions to move towards Basel II Accord compliancy.

John Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, Scrittura commented, "The pressure of doing business today is exacerbated by the need to enhance efficiency at every level and increase profitability wherever possible. Scrittura's new solution will make a tangible impact to companies in streamlining operational efficiency and automation. WordML also permits a new level of document complexity to be brought under the STP umbrella."