INVESTMENT-MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

Barclays Capital, the investment-banking division of Barclays PLC, reaffirmed plans to expand its North American headquarters within Manhattan. The United Kingdom-based global financial-services organization, which currently has more than 1,300 employees in its N.Y. facilities, will move this summer into 260,000 square feet of office space in The MetLife Building at 200 Park Ave. The firm also announced that it plans to maintain operations in its downtown Manhattan location at 222 Broadway.

Spectrum EBP, LLC, a bank-centric payment systems company for electronic-bill presentment and payment (EBPP), and Financial Fusion Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sybase Inc., announced a strategic alliance in which Financial Fusion will be certified to the Spectrum network. With this alliance, Financial Fusion has the ability distribute bills and collect payments for its 5 million online customers through the Spectrum network of consumer-service providers and participant financial institutions.

Franklin Templeton Investments' Chief Web Officer Jennifer Bolt was named "E-Commerce Executive of the Year" by mutual-fund newsletter Fund Action, part of the Institutional Investor newsletter family. This award is presented annually to the e-commerce executive whose work places his or her firm in a prominent position relative to industry peers. In addition, the "E-Commerce Executive of the Year" is recognized for having created an agenda that has industry-wide ramifications.

ADVISORport announced the launch of its Multi-Strategy Account (MSA), a single account that encompasses a diversified mix of investment strategies, each of which is assigned to a separate investment manager. ADVISORport's MSA product is available only through financial advisors, and is aimed to address the often unmet need of investors who seek separate-account management but lack the minimum balance for a well-diversified mix of traditional, managed accounts.

Cameron Systems, a vendor for FIX engines in electronic-trading technology, released CameronFIX Version 6.0. The new version features the Universal Server, a highly configurable server application, allowing customers a simple plug-and-play way to communicate using FIX protocol. The CameronFIX Universal Server communicates with customers' internal systems using their choice of technology. Standard technology adapters are now available for:1. COM/ActiveX connections to any Microsoft-Windows applications, including Visual Basic, Visual C++, Excel, and Delphi. 2. Messaging products with a Java Messaging Service interface, including Talarian SmartSockets, Tibco Rendezvous and IBM MQ Series. A native adapter is also available for Talarian SmartSockets. Native adapters for Tibco and MQ Series will soon be available. 3. Secure Sockets Layer provides the ability to run FIX communications over secure sockets.