11 – 17 APRIL 2013
TECHNOLOGY
Xenomorph to go live with Italian client soon
Separately, Sentance said Xenomorph is starting see enomorph expects its first Italian client, investincreasing demand in Asia, Scandinavia and South ment bank Mediobanca, to go live on its system America driven by increasing regulatory oversight over in just a few months’ time, according to CEO Brian firms’ risk operations. The vendor has already signed 10 Sentance. deals this quarter, which Sentance said is better than this The London-based data and risk vendor announced time last year. the signing of the deal this month. The deal includes With clients across Hong Kong and Tokyo and several access for Mediobanca to Xenomorph’s TimeScape risk prospective clients in the pipeline, Sentance said he believes and data analytics platform. Asia is where his firm will see significant growth this year, The Italian firm approached Xenomorph with a BRIAN SENTANCE CEO, Xenomorph especially in the Far East and Central parts of the region. Request for Proposal (RFP) early last year, Sentence Enhancements to some of the risk functionality sursaid. The RFP process put the British firm up against rounding charting and risk factor analysis are coming later this about 10 competitors before it won out towards the end of last year, Sentance said, though he declined to elaborate. year, he added.
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out for use by competitors, according to Ido Gileadi, partner. The consultancy is currently talking with about 10 firms looking to go this route, Gileadi said. The topic was also the subject of a paper from the company released late last month. “There’s a lot of interest in the market in doing things differently…. now is a great time,” said Gileadi, the author of the report. The unused infrastructure costs firms money at a time when revenues are flat or falling and regulatory and risk-related costs continue to rise, Gileadi said. Adding that the ideal return on equity is about 15%, Gileadi noted if revenues stay flat then firms would need to reduce costs 21% to achieve those results. Some of the systems most adaptable to this type of agreement are reconciliation, client reporting and trade confirm systems, according to Gileadi. When a firm decides to work with Capco to go this route, Capco takes over the technology and the people who support it and sells it to firms looking to outsource that functionality without having to resort to industry utilities, Gileadi said. The risk and liability surrounding the use of the system falls on the
purchasing firm, Gileadi explained, adding that Capco works with both parties and regulat