Finacle - Customers | Case Studies | European Credit Management

Exploiting Technology to
Streamline Asset Management

Bank Profile

Founded in 1999 at the inception of European Monetary Union and in anticipation of the rapid development of the Euro denominated credit markets, European Credit Management has €21.3 billion in assets under management, invested in European corporate bonds, bank capital, European emerging markets, asset-backed securities and leveraged loans. Based in London and authorized by the FSA, ECM is the only European asset manager to receive the top rating of M1 from Fitch Ratings. In January 2007, ECM formed a strategic partnership with Evergreen Investments, the asset management arm of Wachovia Corp., whereby Evergreen acquired a majority stake in ECM. For the last four consecutive years, it has been the winner of Global Investor’s Award for Investment Excellence as ‘European Bond Manager’ / ‘European Fixed Active’ Manager and ‘Boutique of the Year.

Based in London, ECM has client offices in Chicago, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Madrid, Lisbon, Singapore, Sydney and Cape Town. In the US, ECM operates through a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, ECM, Inc.

ECM is recognized as one of the leading managers of European fixed income; winning Global Investor Magazine’s Award for Investment Excellence in this category for the last three consecutive years (2004, 2005 and 2006).ECM is authorized and regulated by the FSA.

Key Business Driver - Leverage Technology to Meet Changing Business Imperatives

ECM first sought to capitalize on a robust technology solution, in the late 90s, to manage its bonds, notes and interest rate swaps. The firm sought to harness the prowess of technology to rise to the challenge of the flat world, by quickly grasping the changes it had ushered into the financial services domain.

After a stringent evaluation process, the firm identified Infosys as its technology partner and selected Finacle treasury solution to power its operations. The years that followed saw several other products added to the firm’s repertoire, with Finacle treasury solution effectively supporting these asset classes on an integrated platform.

Shifting its strategic and operational priorities in sync with the new business paradigm, ECM continued to adapt to changing market dynamics launching new and innovative products. Finacle treasury solution has enhanced it coverage, to meet ECM’s burgeoning requirements.

ECM has taken innovation beyond the traditional realms of products and channels, further into process, leveraging Finacle treasury solution for more than its broad based functionality.

Solution Overview – More than Asset Management, at the Heart of Operations

Finacle treasury solution is ideal to deliver cross asset support as it is built to handle trading, risk management and processing for a broad array of asset classes on a single integrated platform. The solution proved the best-fit resolution to manage bonds, notes issue, interest rate swaps, spread tickets, cash tickets, futures, FX, cross currency swaps and repos for ECM.

Seeking to create competitive advantage for itself with the technology differentiator, ECM leveraged Finacle treasury solution as its enterprise platform. Positioned at the core of ECM’s operations, the system was interfaced extensively to several other internal systems encompassing reporting, confirmations, funds management, ratings database and cash reconciliation.

Benefiting from Technology – a Key Enabler in the Flat World

Over the past eight years ECM has become a major player in the fixed income markets. Apart from investment grade corporate bonds, ECM also trades in asset backed securities, bank capital, leveraged loans, and high yield & European emerging market debt. Among the first to understand that technology is among the biggest forces flattening the business world, ECM has successfully integrated IT across its value chain as a key enabler of both operation efficiency and innovation, creating converging opportunities for itself.

ECM has effectively leveraged the Finacle advantage in achieving its business objectives and is benefited in terms of:

Significant increase in productivity
Enhanced agility by achieving greater degree of operational flexibility
Gaining competitive advantage by enabling rapid roll out of operations
Improved efficiency through integrated with internal and external systems, easing operations
Support for easy management of volume growth through a clear scalability advantage

View From the Top

“Finacle treasury solution is and continues to remain a key enterprise platform for European Credit Management, with its support for wide range of asset classes and flexible and scalable architecture. We are looking forward to upgrading to the latest version of the product..”

Ian Holmes
Systems Project Manager
European Credit Management Limited

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