OUTSIDE THE REGION

Industrial Bank of Japan is completing implementation of Reuters Triarch 2000 digital data distribution platform at its London trading centre, according to a story in D&IS's London-based sister publication Dealing With Technology. Triarch withstood challenges from Telerate's TTRS, Midas-Kapiti International's Citydesk (the incumbent) and Tibco's TIB to land the contract. IBJ has been using Citydesk to access real-time news and market data for nearly five years. Triarch 2000's real-time digital data distribution network will shortly go live in support of 195 trading room positions at IBJ's two trading rooms at Bracken House. According to Keith Kilmer, IBJ's IT service manager, bank and vendor staff began IBJ's Triarch implementation in August and the project is now around 80 per cent complete. Kilmer notes that feedback from end-users testing the alternative systems, and Citydesk's shortcomings had much to do with Triarch's selection. The bank formed a steering committee consisting of traders and IT staff to decide which system most effectively met its requirements. "Citydesk has not kept pace with what we wanted to do [and] Triarch was chosen by users," Kilmer says. Triarch will deliver real-time digital news and market data supplied by Bridge Information Systems' IDF, Telerate's TDPF and Reuters' own Selectfeed Plus data feeds. Kilmer adds that IBJ "is on the verge of putting in Reuters' recently-released 3000 Series feeds" as well. IBJ is also upgrading the trading room desktop PCs that will provide Triarch access. Previously, the bank used a mix of Intel 486 and Pentium-based PCs from a variety of manufacturers. The bank is now installing 150 Pentium P6-based PCs running at 200 MHz and built by US-based Dell Computer Hewlett-Packard Unix servers running the HP-UX version of Unix function as back-end Triarch system servers. An Ethernet 10-base-T-based LAN links the servers to desktop PCs across IBJ London's two trading floors.

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank (DKB) has also selected Reuters' Triarch 2000 to distribute digital real-time news and market data across its new and expanded trading room floors in London, according to a Dealing With Technology story. The bank recently built a new, 80-position trading floor for investment banking subsidiary DKB International's capital markets groups at its DKB House headquarters in the City. The older trading floor at adjacent Candlewick House has also been expanded to support some 30 new foreign exchange and money market traders working for DKB's London branch. Back-end servers and trading room desktop PCs on DKBI's new trading floor are using Microsoft's Windows NT 3.51 operating system for networked PC-based support, and Sun Microsystems' servers and desktop workstations to support Unix-based systems and end-users. Desktop trading room PCs run Reuters' Personal Trader Workstation (PTW) front-end software, whereas Unix-based desktops at the London branch's trading room access real-time news and market data via Reuters Advanced Trader Workstation (ATW) software. According to Mike Conway, who heads DKBI's steering committee, the bank has also installed an integrated LAN linking desktop PCs and workstations across the two floors. The LAN is built on a structured cabling system with equipment supplied by US-based Bay Networks. It comprises an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)-based network backbone linking each floor. Conway says that the old trading room was equipped with a number of standalone PCs and lacked integrated networking capabilities.

Tokyo-Mitsubishi International, the London-based capital markets subsidiary of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, has automated its entire back-office operations using workflow and imaging technology developed by Colorado Springs-based Optika Imaging Systems reports Risk Management Operations. The overall initiative aims to eliminate all the bank's paper and file storage costs while improving its information flow and disaster recovery provisions. According to Martin Higgs, associate director and head of derivatives settlements at Tokyo-Mitsubishi, "you can lose a deal file and people can deliberately shred pieces of paper." In contrast, a file stored on an optical drive is always there, making it harder for rogue traders to destroy or hide trades, he adds. Earlier this year, details emerged regarding a Jardine Fleming trader's efforts to hide files in his desk in Hong Kong in order to give certain clients a market advantage. Higgs says Optika's so-called Filepower workflow and imaging system should prevent such incidents from occurring at Tokyo-Mitsubishi. A digital back office also leads to direct operational benefits on the trading floor, Higgs asserts. Image files are instantly accessible by traders and compliance staff from their desktop PCs, and any number of users may access the same file concurrently, he explains. Higgs also argues that digitizing the securities dealer's back office also makes disaster recovery much easier since all document images are copied to an off-site database. "If we were locked out of this building right now, we could walk to our disaster recovery site and everything would be right there. In the event of a disaster, the files don't go up in smoke," Higgs notes. Tokyo-Mitsubishi paid around US$250,000 (£150,000) for 200 Filepower licenses. He estimates that the bank spent an additional $660,000 (£400,000) for the entire system including hardware costs.

In a memo to employees dated last month, Ken Burenga, Dow Jones Telerate's recently-appointed president, outlined his strategic vision of Telerate's future. In the memo, Burenga, who was appointed Telerate's chief this past summer, painted a picture of a Telerate as a company that will compete as full-service information services vendor, not one that is narrowing its focus or planning to sell out, according to D&IS's New York-based sister publication Inside Market Data. IMD obtained a copy of the memo as rumours circulated that major organizational changes were about to be made at Telerate. The memo did not address the subject of who would be specifically involved in carrying out Burenga's strategic plans, however. Telerate has posted declining revenue growth rates for seven quarters running now. For the most recent quarter, Telerate's revenue growth rate was virtually flat and operating profits fell a whopping 32.4 per cent. In his memo, Burenga says that Telerate risks an eroding market share "unless we act quickly and decisively to meet changing customer needs and competitive challenges." Having commissioned SRI to produce a study of Telerate's existing operations, Burenga is said to be considering a number of options to streamline the vendor's network platform, including outsourcing parts of its network. In the memo, Burenga also mentions transaction services, risk management and historical market data as prospective areas of growth for Telerate. The memo specifically outlines plans for Telerate in the fixed income, foreign exchange, risk management, equities, commodities, energy and transaction services markets. Implementing the strategies described will involve a large-scale investment, "the largest programme since the original acquisition [of Telerate by Dow Jones]," the memo says.