Association Update

RMA releases dates for its sixth annual retail risk management conference; NACHA issues a call for presentation applications for its PAYMENTS 2003 show; SWIFT signs a strategic STP agreement with Omgeo.

The Risk Management Association (RMA) will hold its Sixth Annual Retail Risk Management Conference June 10-11 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The conference, which will focus on timely strategies for management of risk in the retail portfolio of financial institutions, features a number of sessions and speakers. Lawrence B. Lindsey, assistant to the president, and director of the National Economic Council, will discuss the role of financial services providers in uncertain socioeconomic times. Gordon Guetzmann, managing vice president, First Manhattan Consulting Group, will discuss the strategies that enable the winners in retail to consistently deliver quality growth and profitability. And Mark Zandi, chief economist, Economy.com, will discuss consumer behavior.

For information about how to register for the Annual Retail Risk Management Conference, visit RMA's Web page, www.rmahq.org.

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The National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) has issued a call for presentation applications for its PAYMENTS 2003 show, which will run April 27-30, 2003 in Orlando, Fla.

The organization is looking for bankers willing to present pro and con case studies about electronic payment system applications. To get more information and submit a session proposal, visit www.nacha.org/conferences/Payments2003/default.htm.

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SWIFT has signed a strategic agreement with Omgeo, a Palm Desert, Calif.-based provider of institutional post-trade processing services, that will enable Omgeo Central Trade Manager to send settlement notification messages via SWIFTNet to custodians, sub-custodians and clearing agents, for domestic and cross-border trades.

Through this agreement, SWIFTNet becomes a preferred messaging solution for settlement notification from Omgeo CTM. Omgeo will now offer its clients greater flexibility when communicating with trading counter parties, which allows them to extend further their existing SWIFT relationship. SWIFT users will be able to access Omgeo CTM for settlement notification messages via the same gateway they use to access other business critical services.

SWIFTNet is SWIFT's secure and standardized IP messaging platform, which will support FIN and other messaging applications.

The agreement will help streamline communication between investment managers, broker/dealers, custodian banks and clearing agents while providing another option for enabling a seamless trade process from notice of execution through to settlement communications. This agreement will bring the industry a major step closer to a true, global straight through processing (STP) environment.

"Omgeo and SWIFT share a similar goal: to help their clients achieve true, end-to-end STP," said Leonard H. Schrank, CEO, SWIFT. "This partnership and this first project are the demonstration of our mutual commitment to this goal."