Description
Openlink Findur helps large organizations engaged in capital markets trade smarter, minimize risk, and streamline business processes in real time – all while reducing costs. By providing access to all critical decision-making information, and bringing it into a single, trusted and actionable source of intelligence, Openlink Findur helps break down silos across departments and functions. Collaboration increases, risks are mitigated, and profitable opportunities are uncovered. With front-to-back office straight-through processing, Openlink Findur eliminates much of the manual reconciliation work typically required in operations. Openlink Findur makes access to all facets of the transaction lifecycle readily available so business gets more timely and accurate information for decision making. Openlink covers the broadest range of asset classes in the industry, helping you tap new market opportunities quickly and cost-effectively. Nimble, scalable, and comprehensive, Openlink Findur helps meet today’s challenges while paving the way to capitalize on tomorrow’s opportunities. Key components include: Business Process Automation- Quickly deploy business process workflows for automation, execution and monitoring. Risk Reporting- Ready access to an extensive set of reporting tools for credit risk, market risk and portfolio analysis. Credit and Risk Monitoring- Extensive set of reporting tools for credit risk, market risk and portfolio analysis. Reports and Dashboards- Point-and-click simplicity for operational and analytical reports. Collateral and Margin Management- Improved handling of margining, legal agreements, valuations and operations. Document Management- Generate, store and send MS Word-based documents for invoices, confirms or any other type of document. Accounting- Completely integrated and fully automated sub-ledger accounting solution. Operations- Simplified clearing and settlement, reconciliation and confirmation. Integration Tools- Easily Integrate external applications or proprietary analytics or reports. Treasury Management- Cash management, funding, risk management and financial management.
Challenge
Costs and risks associated with front-to-back office reconciliation- Many firms utilize different systems across trading, risk management and operations functions. As these systems are not well integrated, users across the business are rarely using a single, consistent set of information simply because information is changing faster than it can be reconciled. Errors arise, and it can be challenging to keep up – especially in the face of increasing transaction volume. Regulatory changes impact hedge accounting- In order to avoid earnings volatility, hedges that qualify as “highly effective” can be afforded hedge accounting treatment. However, implementation of hedge accounting requires a large amount of work documenting the hedge relationship and proving – both prospectively and retrospectively – that the hedge relationship is effective. In addition, evolving regulations and accounting standards (e.g. IFRS 9) for measuring hedge effectiveness make it more difficult to keep systems current with the latest rules and methodologies. New OTC derivatives regulations will require the more effective management of collateral- In order to improve transparency and reduce counterparty risk, Dodd Frank and other regulations mandate that standardized OTC derivatives be traded on an exchange or regulated trading platform, cleared through central counterparties (CCPs) and reported to a trade repository. With trades dispersed across multiple clearing venues, the ability of firms to “net out” with counterparties is diminished. Furthermore CCPs typically have a more restricted list of assets that they are willing to accept as collateral – a particular challenge when traditional AAA assets are downgraded. Handling cleared and bilateral categories of trades-Having a market with two categories of trades where some are cleared and some are struck bilaterally is complicating processes. Imperative for more rigorous stress testing- Firms are paying much more attention to stress testing – modeling hypothetical scenarios to evaluate the impact of possible future events. And they are looking to model increasingly complex scenarios to better understand their liquidity, credit and market risks under a much wider range of circumstances.
Solution
A single solution from front-to-middle-to-back office- With Openlink you get one integrated solution for trade capture, valuation, compliance and limits monitoring, right through to position and risk reporting, collateral management, clearing and settlement, accounting and cash management. Because a single solution is used across the front, middle and back offices, all roles across the business can work within the same set of shifting opportunities and obligations, eliminating the possibility of unintentional disparities that could crop up between, say, front office trades and middle-office compliance. The data transparency delivered right along the trade lifecycle also allows users to click on an accounting entry, for example, and drill down into the underlying trade to quickly investigate issues when they do arise. Value Delivered- As a result, trade processes are streamlined and the business gets more timely and accurate information for decision making. Measure hedge effectiveness and minimize earnings volatility- The Openlink solution automatically analyzes the effectiveness of hedges (under IFRS9, IAS39 or FAS 133) and invoke the appropriate hedge accounting treatment. It features our best-of-breed Hedge Analyzer module for robust hedge effectiveness testing, and provides complete transparency that enables users to drill into postings to verify all payment, accrual or valuation calculations on the trade. The solution supports the statutory reporting required for hedge accounting. Value Delivered- You can automate the application of hedge accounting rules and methodologies to ensure hedges are being correctly treated; giving you the reassurance that earnings statements are being correctly reported and subject to minimal volatility. Make more effective use of collateral in OTC trading- Openlink collateral management functionality supports both cleared and un-cleared OTC derivative trades. It provides real-time information across credit support annexes (CSAs) for bi-lateral counterparties and central counterparties (CCPs) and counterparty netting agreements. Using our system, firms can quickly decide on the most efficient use of collateral, and trade with counterparties who offer the most favorable CSA terms for the assets they are willing to accept as collateral. Furthermore with full visibility of CSA terms, firms can put in place contingencies to post additional collateral in the event of a downgrade to the assets they are holding. Reduce the complexity and cost of managing both cleared and bilateral trades- We provides a single system to connect to OTC clearing for multiple asset classes – we were the first solution to interface with ICE for OTC clearing in 2002. We support workflows for both OTC cleared and bilateral trades including confirmation, settlement, legal documentation, credit risk exposure and margining. In addition, We will provide interfaces for major new exchanges, clearing houses and brokers as they emerge in the marketplace. We have also developed standard gateways to clear trades via service providers such as Markit, Bloomberg and CME. Value Delivered- As a result, We reduces the complexity and cost of managing both cleared and bilateral trades. Better understanding of future risk exposure- The openlink solution provides extensive stress testing functionality enabling you to model complex scenarios with a wide range of input factors. Our simulation engine provides a powerful and consistent application of risk factor shocks regardless of market. Risk can be attributed to hypothetical movements of any magnitude including rates, FX, commodities and inflation.