WestLB chooses Gissing ConteX MCS from Gissing Software for real-time price contributions
London, 6 December, 2004 - Gissing Software, a leading supplier of software and services for real-time trading, today announced that WestLB, an international commercial bank, has selected Gissing ConteX MCS for sending real-time price contributions to information vendors and internal departments in the bank. The first phase, for contributing real-time prices to Bloomberg and Reuters, went live at WestLB's London office on 18 November, 2004. The system also went live with Bloomberg price contributions at WestLB's Düsseldorf office on 23 November, 2004. Future plans include the roll-out of prices to Reuters in Düsseldorf and real-time prices contributions to other vendors such as Telerate.
Alexandra Balloff, Global Head of Market Data Management, WestLB, commented: "Our relationship with Gissing will be a long-term strategic partnership. Data is key for business growth at WestLB. The bank has many disparate systems dealing with data and contributions. Before implementing Gissing ConteX MCS, data contribution was slow and error-prone, resulting in delays in sending prices to market. Now with Gissing ConteX MCS, we can issue real-time prices and easily contribute prices on new instruments. We expect to increase the volume of our contributions by as much as 50% by the end of 2005."
Gissing ConteX MCS processes WestLB's data automatically and in real-time. It takes the data from the different input sources at WestLB, and maps it to the relevant internal or vendor destination. Previously, the WestLB IT department had to add new instruments or update data manually. This meant WestLB's prices were indicative and not tradeable. From January 2005, traders, mainly in the fixed income and credit departments, will be able to enter market prices directly, using Gissing ConteX MCS with no intervention from the IT department. They will then be able to issue tradeable prices and take advantage of market opportunities.
WestLB can now also use real-time prices routed through Gissing ConteX MCS for risk management. With Gissing ConteX MCS, WestLB can route the data to the back office and match its own real-time prices against Bloomberg or Reuters prices for mark to market P&L. WestLB has also implemented Gissing ConteX MCS as part of its operational risk strategy for data contributions. Gissing ConteX MCS is set up on separate servers at WestLB's London and Düsseldorf disaster recovery sites. There is instant switch-over to ensure continuity of contributions in the event of a failure.
Richard Gissing, CTO, Gissing Software said: "In recent years, we've seen data projects become more important for banks. Inaccurate data has an impact on trading margins, risk management and operational efficiency. Being able to issue real-time prices quickly and effectively was vital to WestLB's data strategy and one of the reasons it chose Gissing ConteX MCS. Other reasons for the selection include its automatic data mapping features, user-friendliness and the excellent customer references it has in the market."
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About West LB
With group total assets of €281.9 billion as at June 30, 2004, WestLB is one of Germany´s leading financial services providers. It is the central institution for the savings banks in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg, and as an internationally operating commercial bank it acts as their link to the global financial markets. Working in close partnership with the savings banks, WestLB offers the full range of products and services of a universal bank, focusing on lending, structured finance, capital market and private equity products, asset management, transaction services and real estate finance. WestLB Group employs 6,200 staff (as of December 2004).
About Gissing Software
Gissing Software is a leading supplier of software and services to the financial industry. The company has extensive knowledge of the technology associated with real-time trading needs with emphasis on connectivity for and between market data vendors, merchant banks and brokerage houses. It offers solutions in several specialist areas, including:
Gissing ConteX MCS - allows users to distribute prices to multiple markets and data providers from a single input and has become the de facto standard in the industry for multi-vendor contributions.
RealtimeXL - built specifically for real time data delivery to Excel with no compromise on flexibility or performance. It can be configured to operate with many market data platforms.
Trade data capture, transformation and system integration for fixed income securities and other investment instruments. Products include Bloomberg Trading Integration and ConteX Trade Capture.
ECN Market aggregation gateways to a single trading console for traders in fixed income securities and other investment instruments. Products include Electra.
Gissing Software was founded in 1991 and has over 20 clients in more than 30 international locations. Clients comprise mostly of top tier banks and brokers. Gissing Software’s products are a byword in the industry for performance and reliability.
For more information on Gissing Software’s products and services visit: www.gissing.com
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