Absa Capital uses Global One interfaced with STRATE, South Africa's electronic settlement system, for processing transactions on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and off-market trades.

A SunGard customer since 2007, Absa Capital upgraded to the latest version of Global One to help reduce costs and risks, meet more stringent compliance regulations mandated by STRATE, and help increase competitiveness. Global One's plug-and-play transaction processing and industry-standard interfaces such as SWIFT, from which the STRATE messages are derived, help Absa Capital to enhance straight-through processing and achieve rapid time-to-market. In addition, the upgrade provides the firm with new functionality that includes regulatory message changes for STRATE collateral requirements.

Absa Capital also uses the system's Global View reporting tool, which provides business intelligence reporting mapped to the data held in Global One. The tool helps the firm tailor real-time management and client reports for its stock lending businesses.

Chris Edwards, head of prime services at Absa Capital, said, "SunGard's Global One provides Absa Capital with a sound securities lending system that helps increase our competitiveness. It is also helping us achieve our objective of straight- through processing, thereby making our offerings more attractive to our clients. Support from SunGard and its commitment to deliver on time further assist our business in our quest for continued growth and maintaining that competitive advantage."

Craig Costigan, executive vice president and general manager for SunGard's Global One business unit, said, "Absa Capital needed a solution that would help it focus more on its core business while minimizing project delivery risk and deployment costs. Because SunGard already serves a large, global securities finance community, we have drawn on our experience to provide a seamless solution for Absa Capital that facilitates its trade processing in the South African securities finance market."