WealthCraft Deploys ATOMS for SWIFTNet

WealthCraft Systems has deployed ATOMS Enterprise for SWIFTNet Funds for ING Platform Services in Asia. Built on Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, ATOMS Enterprise for SWIFTNet Funds is a gateway application which acts as messaging middleware for in-house unit trust applications.

It fully supports ISO20022 for funds and 100 per cent of available messages on SWIFT for the current SWIFTNet Funds Release 4 business solution. The gateway application takes advantage of BizTalk Server's robust industry- standard architecture and helps transform messages from different in-house applications into the corresponding SWIFT messages, and sends them via their own direct connection to SWIFT, automating the process of funds trading and achieving straight through processing (STP).

"By implementing fully automated STP transactions with their distributors, fund houses can greatly reduce risk and costs of operations while supporting rapid expansion of business growth and open architecture," said Eric Chua, SWIFT's Regional Head, Investment Fund Solutions. "ATOMS enables automation and scalability of mutual fund operations in financial institutions by significantly reducing the dependency on re-keying or manual intervention."

WealthCraft CEO Kelly Tallas added: "Financial institutions and ultimately markets have much to gain with straight through processing by reducing the complexity, cost and risk associated with processing domestic and cross-border trades and speeding the flow of standardised information to all parties involved in the mutual funds sector."

ING Platform Services Ltd (ING PS) was the first company to successfully deploy the ATOMS solution in Asia. Integrated with its existing WealthCraft Advisor Workbench (AWB) application, ATOMS provides ING PS with improved operational scalability for its I-WRAP services in Hong Kong and Singapore. I-WRAP, an integrated transaction recording, account keeping and valuation reporting service, consolidates and enables investors and their advisors to monitor their investments easily, with a broad menu of more than 1,000 mutual funds available for subscription.

Sheida Hadji-Ashrafi, worldwide industry manager for payments, Microsoft, commented: "Fund houses have found in Straight-Through Processing a way that helps them automate their processes and increase their efficiency and thus, respond to customers more efficiently. To do so, they need to have the right technology and Microsoft's commitment to the financial industry is to partner with leading financial technology firms to develop empowering solutions. WealthCraft's gateway application, which is built using BizTalk Server, offers financial institutions a secure and reliable platform and help them meet their clients' needs now and in the future."

Microsoft BizTalk for ING Investment Management

Microsoft Corp. announced today at Sibos 2008 that ING Investment Management has chosen Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 to enable SWIFT connectivity into The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BNYM), the settlement counterparty appointed by ING for back-office operations. Having completed the proof of concept, the project is due to go live by the end of 2008 and will enable a timely transfer of settlement instructions and receipt and reconciliation of messages from BNYM. Coupled with a reduction in the number of parties involved in the transaction, these methods are expected to transform ING Investment Management's securities and payments processing to provide a significant, highly efficient message processing structure.

Using Microsoft BizTalk Server including BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT, ING will gain the ability to exchange the complete set of ISO 15022 securities and payments messages directly from their internal applications to increase straight-through processing (STP), support compliance needs and reduce risk.

"We were looking for a solution where we could maintain our existing ING architecture, and one that was cost effective, easy to implement and offering more control and visibility of our business processes," said Thomas Schreier, senior vice president, Information Technology, ING Investment Management. "Microsoft's BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT achieves all of this without adding complexity or causing disruption to our existing business operations. Microsoft's solution provides us with the required interoperability, reliability and flexibility for rapidly creating and deploying SWIFT-based financial messaging solutions as well as meeting our customers' needs more efficiently and effectively."

In addition, by using Microsoft BizTalk Server, ING will be able to efficiently transmit information to and from a newly established, centralized data storage system. This system will allow the firm to handle the expected increase of transactions that the business will face in the future as part of its expansion plans.

"The investment management industry is changing at a rapid pace," said Dayle Scher, research director, Investment Management, TowerGroup. "Asset managers need to support increasing volumes and support new securities and portfolio strategies. By outsourcing back-office operations, some of the pressure placed on the operations area can be relieved, allowing the firm to focus on its core activities of investing and providing value to its customers."