Investment Management Newsflashes: UBS Subscribes to Reuters Wireless, Pentegra Offers Administrative Outsourcing, and more

UBS Subscribes to New Reuters Wireless Service

Where there is mobile computing, there is a need for mobile information. With that need in mind, UBS has aligned with Reuters to provide its workforce with news and real-time market data. The Reuters Wireless Delivery System (RWDS) will provide UBS's 2,500 BlackBerry users with various types of mobile information including Reuters content and UBS internal rates.

"Our workforce is increasingly mobile and often needs to cover markets outside of normal opening hours. It also needs to have reliable and comprehensive data with maximum availability," says Peter Healey, managing director and chief operating officer of FX/cash and collateral trading at UBS, in a release.

RWDS will allow UBS users to follow market movement, view charts and receive personalized alerts. The product was developed in conjunction with TECH OP, a Swiss-based IT solution provider for banks.

Pentegra Offers New Outsourcing Program

Pentegra Retirement Services has announced the introduction of a new open architecture investment approach for bank trust departments. The service will allow banks to outsource some or all of their administrative and record keeping services while still providing small business clients the flexibility to maintain the investment lineup in their 401k plans.

A trust department can choose which of its administrative tasks it wishes to outsource, and those it wishes to retain while keeping current investment manager relationships. Pentegra is also able to design a custom plan participant Web site that is integrated as part of each bank's online presence.

"This new service allows us to provide a highly-customizable capability to bank trust departments that want to off-load onerous back office tasks while improving service for 401k and profit sharing clients. This ... arrangement enables banks to meet their clients' needs while expanding the depth of their relationships," says Gwen Burroughs, chief marketing officer of Pentegra, in a release.

Pentegra is a provider of retirement products and services to community banks nationwide. The White Plains, N.Y.-based company offers retirement services including 401k, KSOP, ESOP, defined benefit pension and profit sharing to the financial services community.

Charles River Testing New Functionality for Its IMS

Charles River Development has begun testing a new interface with The Yield Book, a subsidiary of Citigroup. The new tool synchronizes The Yield Book's analytics with current holdings, including intraday executions, allowing a fund manager to carry out fixed income investment strategies with improved accuracy and efficiency. The interface links The Yield Book with the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS).

"Because the systems maintain synchronization of all relevant data as executions occur, fixed income managers can truly leverage the strengths of each system," explains Rick Enfield, director of product management at Charles River Development, in a release. "For example, managers can easily utilize the Citigroup prepayment model when conducting portfolio analysis in Charles River IMS to insure that all mortgage analytics reflect consistent Yield Book model results."

The Yield Book is an analytic engine that calculates consistent yield, risk and return measures for a wide range of fixed income security types, including those for emerging and international markets.

Charles River development is a provider of software and services for investment management front- and middle-office operations. The Charles River IMS is a software suite for all security types.