10:18 AM
Investment Management Tech Briefs
Parnassus Investments, a San Francisco-based investment firm with $700 million in assets, recently implemented MFACT, Global Investment Systems' solution for accounting. The solution supports all of the firm's investment and financial accounting, and specifically takes care of computing the net asset value for Parnassus's funds. "MFACT gives us a huge improvement in our efficiency," says Stephen Dodson, a director with Parnassus investments, adding that all accounting was previously done manually.
Charles River Development has certified FIX connectivity between the Charles River Trading System (CRTS) and Salomon Smith Barney, a member of Citigroup, Hong Kong, thereby expanding the investment banking firm's electronic-dealing capabilities in Asia Pacific. This ensures that investment managers using CRTS can electronically route securities orders via FIX to SSB for execution in real time. SSB routes the completed trade information back to CRTS for allocation.
Bear Stearns has signed on as the first financial institution to participate in the online FX auction system, Forexster. The trading application, designed by a former hedge fund manager at Valaquenta Capital, supports direct order matching and "request-for-quote" services. The system allows for anonymity between parties and enables participants to trade without the need for direct credit relationships.
Investment management firms can now get sales reporting information within a customer-relationship-management framework from a product that combines Access Data's SalesVision with Onyx Enterprise CRM. The tool offers sales tracking and reporting across multiple channels, compensation and revenue management and front-line Web-based data delivery.
Anti-money laundering vendor Searchspace has launched an updated edition of its software, AML Sentinel Version 4.0. The new package will feature upgrades on operational efficiency, as well as customer level alerting, alert source consolidation, expanded pattern detection and streamlined electronic regulatory reporting. It is available immediately, and offers specifications for a variety of types of financial firms.