China’s Largest Bank, ICBC, Goes Live on Misys Solution

China’s largest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has completed a major 17 month project to implement powerful treasury and capital markets systems from Misys, the global application software and services company. The development underpins the expansion of ICBC’s treasury and capital markets business in the high-growth structured products area and will enable the bank to process high volumes of complex structured trades.

ICBC worked with Misys to implement Misys Summit FT, a treasury and capital markets solution that enhances trading efficiency on the financial derivative market. Phase one of the implementation saw the bank go-live on Misys Summit FT’s fixed income back office modules, within weeks of ICBC’s listing in October, 2006. Following this, a second phase was completed by the bank to take delivery of a front-to-back derivatives system, which went live in May. Finally, ICBC has successfully implemented a foreign exchange and money market back-office system with Misys Summit FT.

“In recent years, ICBC has been at the forefront of the growth in the domestic banking market. We anticipate gaining an edge on our competitors using Misys Summit FT straight-through-processing to streamline operations of the financial derivatives market, reduce costs and rationalise our systems. We were pleased with the expertise and speed shown by the Misys team, who completed this project,” said Lin Xiao Xuan, general manager, information and technology department, ICBC, in a press release. ICBC partnered with Misys’ services team using sophisticated modeling to test-drive trades and explore risk and exposure. As a result, the bank has successfully streamlined multiple processes across its front, middle and back offices including in deal entry, risk management and settlement, helping the bank to improve margins.

“Technology is an enabler for banks looking to increase volumes and responsibly manage the complexity in the market. Innovative banks like ICBC are using complex structured trades and derivatives to boost margins and to hedge positions, and the most significant impact is the single system for cross-asset trading is found in the improved risk management which ensures the business meets domestic and international regulations,” said Graeme Beardsell, managing director, Asia Pacific, in the release.