Misys International Banking Systems (Misys) has won yet another order for its OPICS Treasury & Capital Markets solution in China, this time from China Construction Bank (CCB), which has its headquarters in Beijing, the financial capital and seat of government of the People`s Republic of China (PRC).
CCB is now a major player in the international capital markets, providing syndicated loans and financing for highways, telecommunications and other construction projects, as well as comprehensive banking and financial services for large and medium-sized corporate clients.
The bank has also expanded its retail banking business and offers an extensive portfolio of consumer banking products. These are delivered through CCB`s extensive branch network, which includes 38 regional hubs and 26 000 domestic branch offices in mainland China, together with international branches in Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Singapore, plus representative offices in many other major financial centres.
In conjunction with the massive expansion of its business, CCB has made significant reforms to its treasury and credit management, financial control and accounting systems. The bank`s senior management felt that to support its increasingly complex treasury business, it required a single comprehensive treasury solution to replace the three separate systems currently in use. A new solution that could be integrated with the Reuters Kondor+ package in the front-office to consolidate the resulting data was regarded as essential to reduce the `bottleneck` between the bank`s front- and back-office.
OPICS has a proven track record as a global solution, having been licensed by over 140 financial institutions for use at more than 230 sites worldwide, including Bank of China, one of the PRC`s four State-owned banks, which selected OPICS as its global Treasury back office system. In view of the system`s proven track record, the bank considered OPICS as a possible replacement and following a rigorous assessment of other international banking packages on the market, CCB chose OPICS as its preferred solution, and signed the contract with Misys in December 2001.
OPICS is currently being implemented at the bank`s head office in Beijing, and will be integrated with the Reuters Kondor+ system in the front-office to achieve straight-through processing across the full range of treasury instruments traded in the front-office. The system will include applications to support Deposits & Loans, Fixed Income, Call & Notice, Foreign Exchange, Repurchase Agreements, OTC Options, FRA`s, Mortgage-backed Securities and Swaps transactions. Other components of CCB`s OPICS solution include the system`s multi-currency General Ledger, Confirmation Matching and Nostro Management, plus rate-feed handling and interfaces to the bank`s Bloomberg trading system, the SWIFT message network and CCB`s clearing network for its domestic branches` foreign currency payments.
Misys` OPICS solution was chosen on the basis of its comprehensive functionality and the support provided for an extensive range of treasury instruments. OPICS also offers pre-packaged interfaces to systems such as Reuters Kondor+ and Bloomberg, providing ease of integration between front- and back-office, and significant progress towards straight-through processing.
Other factors which influenced CCB`s choice of OPICS were the financial strength and integrity of Misys, and the company`s well-deserved reputation for the successful implementation of similar solutions at client sites such as Bank of China. Following the implementation of OPICS, planned for completion by the end of 2002, CCB will be able to continue the planned expansion of its treasury business, supported by an advanced, internationally-recognised solution offering straight-through processing between front- and back-office, all consolidated on a single platform.
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