IN BRIEF

FINANCIAL MODELS COMPANY, INC. (FMC), a producer of investment management technologies, recently took steps to further expand internationally. FMC founded FMC Software in Sydney, Australia, which will be a central support hub and a source for FMC's investment management solutions. In addition, FMC recently announced its first Italian client, San Paolo IMI Asset Management, which selected FMC's Sylvan and Sylvan Indices to monitor investment performance and attribution.

CHARLES RIVER DEVELOPMENT shipped Version 3.10 of the Charles River Trading System, its global buy-side order management and trading system, this month. The new version offers greater functionality to users, including a new export router module, an enhanced order-entry screen, a more versatile fixed-income calculation engine, an improved blotter, a more thorough compliance engine and expanded electronic trading functionality.

AXA ADVISORS, a subsidiary of AXA Financial, Inc., recently unveiled several innovative e-business strategies intended to improve customers' and business clients' online experiences across the industry, nationwide. Among the planned enhancements are online transactions related to variable life insurance and annuity contracts, virtual business forms using an electronic document exchange (eDOX) tool and the ability for clients to analyze and manage their companys' 401(k) via AXA's 401(k) Sponsor View/EQ sponsor application.

JAVELIN TECHNOLOGIES announced the release of Coppelia, the first commercially available FIX 4.2, last week. Javelin, which develops and markets FIX solutions for the global securities marketplace, has been seeking to boost the adoption of FIX 4.2 across the industry so it can continue to develop new innovations to the FIX protocol. The latest version of FIX enhances support for equity options, program trading, ECNs, Japanese language and market practices, and foreign exchanges, among other areas.