Interwoven has launched the first solution for buy-side financial institutions to automate the confirmations process for over-the-counter (

Interwoven has launched the first solution for buy-side financial institutions to automate the confirmations process for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.

The new solution - Scrittura BuySide - enables buy-side firms to achieve increased regulatory compliance and reduce trade-processing times by automating and validating the confirmation process for OTC derivative instruments such as interest rate, credit, equity, FX, and energy.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) is calling upon buy-side financial institutions to play a more prominent role in reducing operational risk. However, many buy-side institutions and mid-tier sell-side firms have been unable to afford the significant technology implementations historically required to achieve this objective.

The Scrittura BuySide solution, which was developed in collaboration with several of the world's largest hedge funds, addresses this challenge by providing institutions with a cost-efficient, easy-to-use, and complete solution - including business process management, document management, records management, information capture, and messaging - enabling firms to reduce processing time, support compliance, and address trade failure.

As an established ECM solutions leader, Interwoven has been instrumental in the growing adoption of ECM solutions by leading financial services companies around the world. Global financial services companies that currently rely on Interwoven to improve efficiencies, enhance customer service, and achieve increased compliance include: Allstate; Aon; ABN Amro; Banco Populare di Milano; Bank of Tokyo; Barclays Global; Bear Stearns; Capital One; Commerzbank; Deutsche Bank; HSBC; Lloyds TSB Bank; Mastercard International; NASD; National Stock Exchange of India; Rothschild; Russell Investment Group; Swiss Life; Washington Mutual; and many others including 19 of the top 25 financial services companies on the Financial Times 500 list.

'Traditional asset managers are moving rapidly away from active management toward a host of alternative portfolio strategies including overlays or portable alpha,' says Gavin Little-Gill, director, TowerGroup. 'At the same time, the traditional long-short hedge fund is finding competition and crowding out opportunities in these markets, leading them to evaluate opportunities with alternative securities. Both of these trends have moved the buy-side quickly into exchange trading, and now OTC derivatives, in search of securities to meet their evolving needs. One of the key factors that has impeded a full stampede toward OTC derivatives is a lack of technology to support workflow, documentation, valuation and risk management.'

The Scrittura BuySide solution provides buy-side professionals with industry-leading functionality to substantially speed trade processing times while simultaneously reducing risk. Key capabilities include: 

• Automated workflow - a Workflow Manager enables the automation of most manual processes, such as routing of incoming confirmations for matching to internal trading records; checking for legal language, approval and signature; and dispatch back to counterparty.
• Trade matching - using fax server technology, the solution employs methods such as side-by-side views of received confirms and internal trade records, optical character recognition, and a matching engine to help professionals match inbound counterparty agreements to outstanding trades.
• Document management - document management capabilities enable all associated trade documents and versions to move together through the workflow process until the trade is confirmed. The solution also enables these documents to be stored where they can be indexed and easily searched. Users can also dispatch trade documents automatically to any recipient via fax or e-mail.
• Document generation - a document generation engine creates and dispatches replies to dealer counterparties pinpointing incomplete or erroneous legal language and trade data.
• Control, audit, and reporting - at the user's command, every trade variable can be viewed, edited, and downloaded. A full audit trail allows the user to locate a document in the workflow process at any given time. Additionally, reports on intelligence, such as outstanding trades by type, counterparty, and age, can be automatically run and dispatched to management.
• Message generation and management - the solution enables clients to let market conditions dictate the confirmation process, whether choosing between matching vendors, employing bilateral matching, or generating paper confirmations.

'There is a strong need among hedge funds and smaller financial institutions for a solution to help them improve efficiencies and reduce operational risk like their sell-side and larger counterparts,' says Jos Stoop, vice president and general manager of financial services solutions at Interwoven. 'Interwoven is thrilled to provide the first solution to help these financial institutions achieve their key business objectives, further reinforcing our commitment to delivering highly-targeted and deep domain expertise ECM solutions for financial services companies.'

Interwoven's Scrittura BuySide Solution is available now. For more information, please go to www.interwoven.com/solutions/otc_derivatives/index.html

Background notes: Interwoven, Inc, provider of Enterprise Content Management solutions for business, enables organizations to unify people, content and processes to minimize business risk, accelerate time-to-value and sustain lower total cost of ownership. Interwoven delivers deep industry-specific solutions, which reduce business process cycle time from initial collaboration through design, production, sales, marketing, legal review, IT, and service. Interwoven leads the industry with a service-oriented architecture today and easy-to-use, best-in-class components and solutions. Today, over 3,400 enterprises, law firms, and professional services organizations worldwide are Interwoven customers including BT, Ford, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, General Motors.

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