Bank and corporates

Overview

In today’s complex and global marketplace, all sell side entities, from the largest investment banks to the small and independent brokers, are facing fierce competition.

Business Challenges

Competition is tough, commissions are lower and products traded can be so complex that accurately assessing their prices and their risk require important investments in IT systems. Surviving in this current and difficult context requires organizations to constantly strive for excellence and maximize efficiencies. Data Management policies are a key part of these cost efficiency and process optimization projects. In addition, the recent credit derivates crisis has shown us how valuable a good and complete approach to risk management is and why critical data should be centralized for quicker and more accurate analyses.

Market Challenges

When thinking about implementing a data management policy, do not only think of Return on Investment. Ask yourselves how much you would have saved if you had invested in a policy and system before the last crisis, and project how much it will save you during any future market turmoil. Below are some concerns that SmartCo aims to address with its solutions. If you share the same, please contact us to get more details on the added value offered.

Key Benefiits

Efficient trading

Financial transactions are taken on the basis of the information the traders and their systems have. Efficiency equals data quality. Missing data are missing deals. False data equals lost mone. Traders should have immediate access to new sources of data when required. Manual keying of data rather than automatic import often represents an increased cost of expenditure in term of time lost and of human resources involved, especially for the middle and back office.

Manage pricing

The pricing of the financial instruments, and especially OTC products, must be as accurate as possibly feasible, and can not suffer from data quality errors. Managing volume analytics of many types requires flexible and powerful IT systems.

Market risk compliance and management

Recent cases have shown how important it is for a bank firstly to set precise rules and limits to the activity of the trading desks and secondly to implement systems to check in real time that these limits are respected. Frauds and errors cost billions! Due to the amounts managed, the most subtle mistake in appreciating the risk a security or a counterparty represent, can have a nine figure impact! The current high volatility of the markets requires all investment companies to have a closer, faster and more automated follow up process of their risk exposure.

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