SunGard Adds Real-Time Features for Global Clearing and Settlement

STN Settlements is an automated service that consolidates and controls multiple messaging interfaces on one browser-based platform, eliminating the need for Wall Street firms to build and manage separate bilateral connections and providing low-risk migration to straight-through processing.

With the industry moving toward real-time processing, SunGard (booth #2411) is adding new interfaces to its STN Settlements central interface management solution to boost support for global clearance and settlement.

The solution now will interface with the International Capital Market Association's (ICMA) TRAX system for matching international debt and equity securities, and the Central Securities Depository's CREST settlement engine for U.K. and Irish securities. In addition to international trade matching, TRAX also provides support for regulatory reporting to select U.K., French and Belgian agencies. CREST provides matching and settlement services in real-time using ISO format messages.

Tony Scianna, SVP, SunGard Brokerage and Clearance, says STN Settlements' interface will take advantage of TRAX's new real-time ISO 15022-based messaging system and support TRAX reporting of agency bargain, agency cross-bargain and principal cross-bargain transactions. The solution also will support a new CREST feature that forwards specified transactions to the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority (FSA) for regulatory reporting.

"[STN Settlements] is Web-based so you can change views and interfaces — you can view by date or by settled/unsettled trades, for example," Scianna says.

STN Settlements connects custodians, broker-dealers, banks and futures brokers to custodians, depositories and clearing institutions for trade comparison, reconciliation, clearance and settlement. It currently contains interfaces for Fixed Income Clearing Corp.'s GSCC, MBSCC and CMU; SWIFT Category 5; and Euroclear, and supports U.S. and cross-border trading, including U.S. and international equities, fixed income and government/agency instruments.

Meanwhile, SunGard recently announced that its Margin Advisor solution for real-time monitoring of cross-asset margins is poised to expand its global capabilities. The multicurrency Margin Advisor will support cross-margining of futures instruments with index option instruments in a risk-based environment and will be targeted at European and U.S. firms, the company says.

The Margin Advisor solution uses a sophisticated core rules engine that provides credit and risk managers on both sides of the Atlantic with the means to apply both types of margin/credit calculations, Scianna says. "It's completely flexible and workflow-driven," he relates. "We've established hundreds of rules and can turn them on or off." Melanie Rodier has worked as a print and broadcast journalist for over 10 years, covering business and finance, general news, and film trade news. Prior to joining Wall Street & Technology in April 2007, Melanie lived in Paris, where she worked for the International Herald ... View Full Bio