Generalist investment trust Alliance Trust and wholly-owned subsidiary Alliance Trust Asset Management have selected software provider Charles River Development's investment management system (the Charles River IMS) as a single consolidated platform for its equity and fixed income operations.
The system will be used by Alliance Trust's investment team in Dundee, Edinburgh and London, supported by Charles River's application management service.
Following the expansion of Alliance Trust's investment capabilities into fixed income, the company sought a single system to manage both equity and fixed income portfolios. Alliance Trust will also be using Charles River Compliance across all asset classes to achieve real-time pre-trade compliance and position level/start of day compliance. The solution will provide real-time and complete monitoring of overall exposures across the entire organisation
“By entrusting the day to day management of the system to us, Alliance Trust benefits from our knowledge, and we can ensure they are always using the system to its maximum potential.” said Jon Steward, managing director, EMEA, Charles River Development.
Alliance Trust had total assets of £3.0bn, as of 31 July 2011.
Meanwhile, US buy-side business and technology consulting firm NorthPoint has integrated its NorthPoint order management system (OMS) with ICE Link, the credit default swaps (CDS) trade workflow system operated by IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).
Traders can now automatically send CDS trades to ICE Link for affirmation, as part of their trade entry process. The real-time communication with ICE Link allows users to see an up to the minute status of their trades complete with a “success” or “failure” message and detailed information about each status. This eliminates the need to re-key trades into another platform, reducing errors and streamlining processing.
Users of the NorthPoint OMS will be ready to process CDS trades for settlement once it becomes available for the buy-side. The automated integration with ICE Link also allows same-day clearing of CDS trades in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Act.
ICE operates regulated futures exchanges and OTC markets; it also owns five regulated clearing houses for futures and OTC markets across North America and Europe. The firm serves customers in more than 70 countries, offering full support for all cleared and OTC transactions.