NEWSFLASHES

Zurich Financial Services Australia implements HiPortfolio from DST International; Commercial-mortgage-backed securities pricing added to the Reuters DataScope; The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and the Taiwan Securities Central Depository sign general agreement of mutual cooperation.

Investment Management Technology

Zurich Financial Services Australia (ZFSA) recently implemented HiPortfolio from DST International, a Boston, Mass.-based vendor. The latest version of the fund-management system, HiPortfolio/3, provides ZFSA with reporting capabilities, automated communication on scheduled tasks and data accessibility. In addition, ZFSA plans to implement DSTi's Control Centre module, which provides tracking functions for supervisors as well as the Reporting Data Mart system to give users quick information access and client reporting.

Thomson Financial in New York City, and Boston, Mass.-based CheckFree Investment Services have agreed to integrate products. CheckFree's separate-account data will now be available on the Thomson One Advisor framework. The vendors claim that the integrated module will allow financial advisors to compare and assess independent-money managers and managed-account products through data on money managers and investment firms. The data consists of retail separate-account information on 1300 money managers and more than 5000 composites from large investment firms.

Charles River Development, a Burlington, Mass.-based investment-management vendor, has joined forces with Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in New York City, to offer efficient securities-order entry and execution. The solution, which will be offered to the vendors' joint investment-management clients, consists of a new FIX-based interface between the front- and middle-suite solution, Charles River Investment Management System and SLK's REDIPlus, a market-access tool.

Market Data Technology

Commercial-mortgage-backed securities pricing has been added to the Reuters DataScope, Reuters' product suite for fixed-income pricing evaluations and descriptive support. Standard & Poor's Conquest, a pricing and analytic product for the CMBS market, will power the solution in Reuters DataScope. Conquest will now be available to all Reuters DataScope customers.

Global-investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston and FAME Information Services, a historical and reference-data solution provider in New York City, have recently formed an alliance. FAME customers can now purchase CSFB's Fixed Income and Convertible Data/Analytics offerings, which are fueled by FT Interactive Data. The result will include Fame's software platform and CSFB's trader-priced data to provide offerings including fixed-income data for all fixed-income asset classes, as well as convertible-security constituent data. According to a press release, FAME will eventually also offer CSFB's credit-risk-management tools.

Operations Technology

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and the Taiwan Securities Central Depository (TSCD) signed a general agreement of mutual cooperation to facilitate improved work procedures and derive mutual benefits for their respective depositories. The agreement provides a legal framework under which the two securities depositories can exchange information and advice on their business and services. As an initial project under the agreement, DTCC will provide training, advice and information on risk management, custody, mutual-funds servicing and straight-through processing.

CheckFree Financial and Compliance Solutions, a business unit of CheckFree Corporation, announced that AEGON Canada Inc., a member of the AEGON Group and a Canadian provider of life insurance and investment products, has selected CheckFree RECON-Plus for Windows to automate the bank to general-ledger transaction reconciliation of its inter-company locations.

Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services Ltd. announced its intent to establish a direct custody facility in the United Kingdom. The move comes as part of a series of investments made by BBH in support of its European business over the past two years, including a dedicated FX desk in London, the establishment of a European securities-lending business and increasing its commitment to BBH's European-brokerage and fund-distribution activities. Through the initial stage of the project, certain operational-support functions for the facility will be performed by Clydesdale Bank, a subsidiary of National Australia Bank.