Source: SunGard
SunGard today announced the launch of a new liquidity management solution to help corporations and banks make better funding decisions based on validated, real-time visibility into their cash positions.
The new solution, Real-Time Liquidity Management, leverages software components from SunGard's STeP and AvantGard business units that are used in top tier banks and corporates worldwide.
SunGard's Real-Time Liquidity Management solution addresses the need for better liquidity management in an environment that is characterized by growing demands on liquidity and increasing regulatory pressures. To take advantage of initiatives such as CLS and Target 2, and to comply with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II, simple position reporting is no longer sufficient.
"The difference between cash forecasts and reality is too great for the accuracy required by these initiatives," said Tom King, president of SunGard's STeP business unit.
The Real-Time Liquidity Management solution publishes an aggregate view of multi-currency cash positions and matches that information against the institution's own books and records for a true, real-world view of positions. This data can help banks and corporates make more accurate funding decisions, moving from a predictive to a validated model. As a result, the solution can help banks and corporates reduce overdraft costs attributed to short positions and increase profitability by investing under-utilized funds or long positions.
Mr. King continued, "Because the solution is based on SunGard's Common Services Architecture (CSA) framework, we are able to quickly bring to market solutions that help our customers do business more efficiently and cost effectively."
SunGard's Common Services Architecture framework recognizes the need to protect customer investments by developing solutions that leverage a common user interface, databases and components built on a common technology standard.
Separately, at its annual European customer conference in Barcelona today, SunGard announced that it will hold a series of in-depth workshops across Europe to help customers get ready for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). The workshops are aimed at helping SunGard customers work together to define technology requirements for MiFID. The workshops will take place in the autumn in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Addressing more than 900 attendees at SunGard Europa, Harold Finders, group chief executive officer of SunGard's European business, said: "We want to work with you on MiFID because we need to tackle this together. It is not as simple as providing you with a MiFID compliance solution. We believe the best way for you to seize the opportunity that MiFID offers is to work with each other and share requirements, rather than every financial institution duplicating each other's work. We want to help facilitate a collaborative approach."
Bob Fuller, IT director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said: "SunGard is taking the right approach to MiFID. Any software vendor claiming to have a MiFID compliance solution has not fully understood MiFID's implications. Tier 2 and Tier 3 banks approaching MiFID in isolation face a daunting task, in a very short time frame. The wise thing to do would be to take a more collaborative approach."
Other general session speakers at SunGard's largest ever customer event in Europe, included Alberto Giovannini, renowned for his work on clearing and settlement; Angela Knight, chief executive officer of APCIMS; David Blair, treasurer at Nokia; and Irmfried Schwimann, head of the financial services policy unit at the internal market directorate, European Commission.