Germany’s Oldest Private Bank Implements Omgeo to Automate Middle and Back Office

Omgeo (Boston) announced that through the implementation of Omgeo Central Trade Manager (CTM), 97 percent of Frankfurt/Main-based Metzler Asset Management's transactions are being automatically processed. Omgeo CTM automates the confirmation and allocation part of the trade lifecycle, involving investment managers, broker/dealers and custodian banks.

With around EUR 37 billion under management (as at December 2008) and 85 percent transactions being processed cross border, Metzler, part of Germany's oldest private bank, has demanding trade-processing requirements. Prior to automation, Metzler's trade processing was manual and time consuming, and as a result, prone to errors and failed trades. Since implementation, Omgeo CTM has reduced operational risk and increased efficiency in Metzler's trade processing by the automatic central matching of equity and bond trades. Central matching has enabled exception-only trade processing, as a member of staff is only required to investigate transactions if discrepancies have been found.

The firm has also implemented Omgeo CTM's automatic settlement notification,which via a SWIFT message enables the trade notification to be sent automatically to the custodian bank. Also, through the use of Omgeo ALERT, these settlement notifications can be automatically enriched with standing settlement and account instructions (SSI) without requiring any manual intervention.

In a statement, Reinhardt Damm, head of the buyside execution Desk, Metzler, said, "Implementing Omgeo CTM has enabled Metzler to handle increased volumes overall and cover a growing number of markets with virtually the same middle- and back-office resources we've had since 2001. Moreover, we have significantly reduced our operational risk through improvements such as a real-time understanding of our trade positions and a significant reduction in the rate of failed trades."

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio