Used by major banks in the U.K., Asia and the Middle East, the Unisys Urbis solution comprises 27 modules supporting mission-critical banking operations, including retail, treasury, private banking, back office operations, risk management and trading. The Urbis solution provides powerful wealth management functionality spanning all asset classes and a wide range of reporting, settlement and custody models.

In the new release, Unisys has migrated the Urbis solution from a Unix platform to Microsoft Windows .NET technology - enabling faster implementation, lower total cost of ownership and better integration with financial institutions' existing systems.

The latest version of Urbis has also been designed using the Unisys Agile Business Suite, a SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) development platform based on the Microsoft Windows .NET framework. Unisys Agile Business Suite allows financial institutions to use modular, reusable components to quickly and cost-effectively develop new applications and services to meet changing customer needs.

Dominick Cavuoto, President of Technology Consulting and Integration Solutions, Unisys, said: "Banks all over the world must continually innovate to compete against existing and new players. At the same time, banks are also under immense pressure from regulators to reduce their exposure to risk. Drawing on our decades of experience providing mission-critical technology solutions for the world's largest banks, Unisys has enhanced the Urbis core banking solution to help our customers differentiate themselves in all areas of banking, from private banking to trading."

Key features of the Unisys Urbis solution include:

• Single database - Urbis creates a centralised database for all product data, enhancing information sharing across the bank's operations;
• Real-time business insights - Urbis updates account, balance, settlement and position information, as well as risk exposure updates, in real-time. As a result, managers can make faster, more informed decisions based on real-time insights;
• Single customer view - Urbis provides centralised customer records, along with comprehensive analytical and reporting capabilities, and is compliant with 'know your customer' regulations such as FSCS in the UK and USA Patriot in the U.S.;
• Support for future growth - Because it is built on the Unisys SOA-based Agile Business Suite, Urbis provides flexibility for financial institutions to quickly design, test and roll-out new capabilities to take advantage of emerging business opportunities.

The Urbis solution can be hosted on a Microsoft Windows environment or on Unisys ClearPath servers. The solution is backed by a Unisys network of financial sector specialists and global end-user support capability.