Press Releases

Total Data Management® Now Available to the Capital Markets Industry

Total Data Management Optimizes Costs and Efficiency to Provide the Best Data Management Architecture Based on ROI and Data Need

New York and London, September 12, 2005

Asset Control, a leading provider of centralized data management solutions to the financial industry, announced at Sibos in Copenhagen last week that Total Data Management® is now available. Total Data Management is a comprehensive approach to data management, enabling firms to streamline and optimize reference and pricing data management by integrating proven in-house and outsourced solutions based on a firm’s individual data needs.

In addition to Asset Control's turnkey AC Plus solutions for in-house implementation, Asset Control can now offer clients an outsourced reference data solution through its alliance with Accenture.  The Accenture Managed Reference Data Service, which leverages AC Plus technology, provides reference data management on an outsourced basis to maximize efficiencies and economies of scale. It includes a full suite of data management, information technology (IT), vendor management and performance measurement services through a "one-to-many" service model. Accenture announced its first client contract for Accenture Managed Reference Data Service this week.

"The availability of in-house and outsourced solutions, that are seamlessly compatible because they are built on the same core technology, enables financial industry firms to match their data management strategies to the ROI in the data and data processes. Distributing data management across in-house and outsourced platforms simply is a logical approach for optimizing costs and efficiency," said Ger Rosenkamp, CEO of Asset Control.  "Accenture's proven commitment and track record in managed data services makes them ideal to work with, and we are delighted with their speedy progress in bringing the Accenture Managed Reference Data Service to market."

By implementing hybrid in-house and outsourced data management solutions, financial institutions have the opportunity to reduce their costs of standard data management, while maintaining proprietary data or analytics in-house. The Accenture Managed Reference Data Service provides the cost benefits and comprehensive cleansing services of a shared platform for transforming commoditized vendor data into cleansed, composite "golden copy" sets. AC Plus in-house solutions provide a secure, innovative environment for handling proprietary data and analytics, as well as serving as a downstream-integration hub for in-house processing and outsourced data input.
 
"Industry response to Accenture Managed Reference Data Service has been very positive," said Patricia Tsien, senior executive and head of data management in Accenture's Capital Markets practice. "We are pleased that both the cost advantages and the strategic benefits are so well understood. It makes little sense to invest 80 percent of data management resources doing standard repair and consolidation, when you can outsource this work and apply your expert resources to creating new value through proprietary data management. Like Asset Control, we believe the combination of in-house and outsourced data management is the wave of the future, and we look forward to together helping lead this change in our industry."

Accenture Managed Reference Data Service is an outsourced reference data solution that centralizes the technology infrastructure, data cleansing operations, vendor management and quality management of reference data for buy-side and sell-side financial firms. The service is offered globally with Asset Control technology, supporting all types of financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, and mortgage-backed securities. It provides manual data cleansing operations in 15 languages, covering securities indicative data, corporate actions, pricing data and time-series data.

About AC Turnkey Solutions
The AC Turnkey Solutions program slashes project risk, eliminating virtually all on-site work implementing data solutions, except for downstream integration that is usually done at the customer site.  Based on the flexible AC Plus modular framework, these turnkey solutions include automated gathering and standardization of investment data from internal and external sources, transforming it into "golden copy" sets for use by downstream systems and users. AC Plus solutions may be configured to support risk management and compliance, enterprise reference data, and front-to-back-office data integration. 
 
About Asset Control
Asset Control offers centralized data management to financial industry firms through a full range of in-house and outsourced options.  A choice of developer tools, turnkey software solutions and outsourced services enable users to optimize their investment data for efficiency, cost control, reduced operational risk and increased value from their data. 

Derived from the robust and reliable AC Plus modular framework, the Asset Control product set includes data solutions addressing market risk, counterparty credit risk, security master, research and corporate actions, as well as global data networking and administration. Handling data from vendors and in-house systems, these solutions collect, validate, normalize, and consolidate data into cleansed composite "golden copy" sets for business use.

Customers include the LCH.Clearnet, Abbey National, ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital, Bayerische Landesbank , BBVA, Commerzbank, IBM (Dresdner Bank), Harvard Management Company, HSH Nordbank, HypoVereinsbank, ING, Robeco Groep, Santander Central Hispano, Société Générale, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered and Union Investment, as well as a super-major global energy group. Established in 1991, Asset Control is a privately held firm with operations in London, New York and the Netherlands.  For more information please visit www.asset-control.com.