Cariplo Links Front-End To Riskwatch With Neon's MQIntegrator Middleware

LONDON--The Milan-based Cassa di Risparmio delle Province Lombarde (Cariplo), part of Banco Intesa, is using the MQIntegrator middleware from New Era of Networks (Neon) to link the Reuters Kondor+ deal capture and position-keeping application and the Murex options trading software to the Riskwatch risk management system from Algorithmics, running in the back office.

The European branch of Neon combined forces with Logicasiel, an Italian systems integrator, to complete the first phase of a middleware integration project that will support approximately 150 traders, explains Trevor Wilkins, business development director for Neon Europe. The first phase was focused on establishing the first layer of links between the risk system and the transaction processing applications.

Murex is a Paris-based provider of derivatives and trading applications for foreign exchange, money markets and bond options instruments. Kondor+ is Reuters' integrated, real-time, position-keeping system for capturing trades and managing risk. Kondor+ can be used for a variety of instruments such as securities, foreign exchange, money markets, and exchange-traded and OTC derivatives.

For the moment, the Riskwatch installation is in a standalone mode, and relies upon enterprisewide batch-oriented data from the bank's mainframe systems. When the middleware links between the front- and back-end systems become operational, Riskwatch "will touch everything in the bank", he says.

The bank is in the second phase of the project, and that requires Neon and Logicasiel to develop a layer of rules that will form the logic behind the front-to-back office connectivity, says Wilkins. Logicasiel will oversee the testing, set up, training, systems administration and delivery of this phase of the project.

Once the project is complete, Cariplo will use the new front-to-back office architecture to help the bank as it pursues a more aggressive mergers and acquisition strategy, shorten implementation cycles, link different operating platforms and cut maintenance costs, say bank officials. The bank will also deploy the Neon-based system in Cariplo branches in the US, Europe and Asia/Pacific. The bank selected Neon after reviewing the offerings of several other players that bank officials decline to name.

The selection process took into consideration Neon's ability to create "a refined integration system with emphasis on artificial intelligence and process logic," says Paolo Chocchi, information systems manager for finance and risk management at Cariplo.

A joint venture between Finsiel and Logica, Logicasiel also serves as a Neon distributor.

Cariplo Bank announced last year that it would be merging with Banco Ambrosiano Veneto to form Banca Intesa, which adopted Riskwatch this past summer (Derivatives & Risk Technology, July 6, 1998). The merger, completed late last year, has resulted in Italy's second largest bank. The new entity, Banca Intesa, is also the parent company of Caboto, which acts as Banco Ambrosiano Veneto's investment banking unit. Caboto also installed systems from Algorithmics and Reuters (D&RT, May 25).