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Windows in Financial Services is the industry’s central source for information covering the most important developments in financial services IT. Issue by issue, we describe the latest trends, products and applications of technology solutions delivered by Microsoft and its expanding alliance of partners.

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Articles from January 2005

CRM, Check Imaging and Optimism

Fixing the Tower of Babel: Making bank delivery channels work together

At JPMorgan Chase, the retail bank aims to make it easy for customers to get at the information they need regardless of where it is located within the bank.

ATMs: Unleashing Their Marketing Potential

The ATM is moving into a much more powerful new role as banks deploy the latest hardware running on the Microsoft Windows operating system which delivers far more capabilities and allows easier integration with other channels. Now all it takes is for bankers to figure out what ATMs can do.

Strengthening the Middle

For HP and Microsoft, the problem of multiple delivery channels provides a business opportunity. Using Microsoft .NET, HP has built an integration layer with business services that it calls OpenBank.NET.

Wachovia’s Three Wishes

Wachovia Bank wants three things for its external customers, said Jesse Fearrington, director of cross-channel solutions in retail and channel technology.

Microsoft Names David Littlewood Head of Global Financial Services

Microsoft has named David Littlewood managing director of worldwide financial services. He will head the global team that sets the strategic direction for Microsoft in this sector.

Hedge Funds Seek a Competitive Edge with High-Powered Computing

The most important trend in hedge funds is that they are pursuing and attracting institutional money, especially corporate pension and public pension funds. The Bank of New York predicts that institutional capital invested in hedge funds will increase from $60 billion to $300 billion in the next five years and will soon account for more than 50 percent of annual hedge fund net inflows.

High Tech And High Touch

Danny Peltz is executive vice president of Wholesale Internet and Treasury Solutions at Wells Fargo. Wholesale Internet and Treasury Solutions develops and delivers financial services products to the middle market and to corporations. The group, started in 1999, looks for and delivers the technologies that will increase efficiency for customers and help customers simplify their lives. He shared with WFS his views on how to put processes in place to ensure that technology best addresses customer needs.

New Check Law Debuts with Confusion

The industry is moving slowly on Check 21, partly because several major banks have just completed mergers, while small banks which lack research capabilities are waiting to see what the big players do.

Achieving Branch Transformation

In studying over 200 financial institutions, Accenture found that strong organic growth is a distinguishing characteristic of high performing businesses. In many cases, market premiums from growth leaders exceed 20 percent. A closer look at these businesses shows they have de-emphasized cost-cutting and efficiency programs as a way to deliver long-term positive market valuation and shareholder return. Instead, these banks are renewing focus on the end-consumer and the transformation of their distribution networks.

BizTalk Accelerator Gets SWIFT Gold

SWIFT, the international payments organization, awarded Microsoft’s BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT its gold certification. The BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT enables customers and independent software vendors to deliver solutions that allow financial institutions to integrate into the SWIFT network and automate transactions quickly and at a relatively low cost.

Focusing on the Banking Experience

Microsoft introduced a new approach to banking at the BAI Retail Delivery Conference. Branded “experienceBanking,” this new approach flips the usual Microsoft strategy on its head, and looks at banking technology from the customer’s point of view.

Microsoft Treasury Moves to 64-bit

Microsoft Treasury, the division charged with managing the software giant’s financial assets and foreign currency exposure, has beefed up its asset management system by moving risk management onto AMD’s 64-bit Opteron servers. Using the Barra TotalRisk System to manage risk in its financial portfolio, Microsoft Treasury was finding that Monte Carlo simulations were taking 12 to 14 hours, said George Zinn, treasurer and corporate vice president of the Microsoft Corporation. Running on AMD Opteron has cut the processing time to 3 or 4 hours.

Speeding up STP with a Data Hub

The Bank of New York has acquired a 51 percent stake in Netik, providing the data warehouse provider with financial stability and the bank with vital software for its outsourcing business systems for financial services.

CRM Is No Longer a Four-Letter Word

As a year-old startup, Clearsight Wealth Management in Toronto keeps a close eye on its budget. The company, which has focused on affinity marketing to Canadian university alumni, wanted to use Microsoft-based CRM for its marketing campaigns and sales follow up.

Branch Small Talk Translates to Large Referrals

Washington Trust Bank, looking for a way to grow its retail banking business, saw sales referrals leap by 620 percent in one month, after installing Fincentric’s Wealthview Leadbuilder and training its branch staff in sales.

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