Too Cool for Internet Explorer

Welcome to this blog!

Profil Ronald Knecht

...you've found a bilingual blog, so please choose "English" or "German". The blog represents personal views on IT systems and consulting in the asset management and investment banking market and focuses predominantly but not exclusively on issues in German speaking countries, respectively countries with a German speaking sub-community (DE, AT, CH, LU, LI, BE, IT).

For more information about this blog check out the blog note: I-2008 or all blog notes

Thursday, March 20, 2008

ARAG counts on asset management software from SimCorp

Yet another client for SimCorp in Germany: the ARAG Group (a major German insurance company) has signed recently. This deal covers the complete front-to-back functionality SimCorp offers. Accounting will be done according to HGB and IFRS.

With such a freqency of new clients in Germany, I wonder if there is enough resources with SimCorp knowhow available, both at SimCorp and/or in the market in general.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Rules-Engine erleichtert das Reporting der Fondsbilanzierung

Über dieses erfolgreich abgeschlossene Projekt zum Regel-basierten IFRS-Reporting der Fondsbuchhaltung der Deka hat Dr. Rebentisch bereits auf der IT-Fondsprocessing 2007 berichtet.

Dabei wird das Eclipse-basierte Entwicklungssystem ILOG JRules Rule Studio eingesetzt.

Spannend wird nun sein, wie dieses System in die neue Systemlandschaft um SimCorp Dimension eingepasst wird, das ja auch über eine IFRS-Reporting-Funktionalität verfügt.

TA Roundtable Discussion: "TA revolution takes hold"

This Luxembourg based roundtable discussion on the future of transfer agency took place in January 2008 and was held as a follow-up to a previous study that included fund promoters, distributors and service providers in 11 European countries.

As this blog tries to focus more on the IT system side of the business, I would like to point out 3 conclusions that were drawn:

  • "Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of those interviewed expect that there will be a great deal more automation in the next three years nearly three quarters of those surveyed do not believe that there will be much more consolidation in this business over this time period."
  • "Everyone agrees that the European TA business is operationally inefficient in that it is not capable of handling increasingly complex fund structures coming onto the market today in any volume. The issue is what can be done about it. Faxes are still the most common method settling fund transactions with STP rates well under 50%."
  • "There is a widespread view that there will be convergence of in the long only and alternative fund industries and that this will have significant consequences for the TA process in the future. In particular the industry is increasingly looking for generalist TA systems that combine the features required to do long only and alternative funds. Systems capable of dealing with share equalisation are now a must, said many interviewees."

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Postbank Luxembourg implements SimCorp Dimension’s Fund Accounting in seven months

Deutsche Postbank International (PBI) has successfully been going to production with the fund accounting module within, what Simcorp says, 7 months.

Although PBI being a rather small investment banking institution, Simcorp stresses the fact that short running projects are possible with its system - contrary to what some people in the market seemed to have been noting.

I wonder if this has any impact on the system that will finally be selected and implemented at the German Postbank Private Investment (PPI).

Thursday, March 06, 2008

TIQ Solutions stellt TIQView für systematische Datenqualitätsanalyse vor

Die TIQ Solutions um Ralf Becher stellt auf der Cebit ihr Werkzeug zur Analyse der Datenqualität vor, mit dem auch die Fachabteilungen Messungen beispielsweise ihrer Data-Warehouse oder Data-Marts vornehmen können.

TIQ Solutions weißt insbesondere auf die bestehenden Anstrengungen für eine gute Datenqualität hin, u.a. getrieben auch durch "externe Anforderungen an Unternehmen wie Basel II oder dem Sarbanes-Oxley Act sowie in Umsatz- und Imageverlusten, die auf mangelnde Datenqualität zurückzuführen sind".

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Swiss Life Funds AG optimiert Datenmanagement und Reporting mit DVS von Aquin

Aquin hat mit dem Produktionsgang ihres Data-Warehouses DVS beim schweizer Dienstleister Swiss Life eine (wie Aquin sagt) schnelle Umsetzung erreicht: 10 Monate dauerte es, bis die einzelnen Systeme (u.a. IGEFI MultiFonds und Allocare AMS) angebunden werden konnten.

Dabei hat die Swiss Life Wert insbesondere auf ein mehrsprachiges Reporting gelegt.