Press Releases

Asset Control Customer, Wachovia, Wins the American Financial Technology Award for Best Enterprise Data Management Initiative

Bank honored for its hybrid approach to data management, implementing an industry

December 13, 2006

Asset Control, a leading provider of Centralized Data Management (CDM) solutions to the financial industry today announced that its customer, Wachovia, has been honored with the American Financial Technology Award (AFTA) for Best Enterprise Data Management Initiative.

The award was based upon Wachovia's three-year initiative to enhance the information management capabilities of its Corporate and Investment Bank division by centralizing and standardizing its reference data function. The initiative used a "hybrid" approach to data management, deploying onsite technology provided by Asset Control in conjunction with outsourced reference data management services provided by Accenture. Based on this initiative, Wachovia has reduced its business and operational risks through improved data quality and data coverage and increased its focus on higher value business areas.

Wachovia partnered with Asset Control in 2005 to manage pricing data for its risk management operations with a solution designed to provide the bank with greater control over its data and the ability to expand the solution across business lines.  Asset Control’s product, AC Plus, captures and cleanses all of the historical simulations for VaR on an end of day basis and is used primarily by those in risk management, but additionally by the front office to assist equity-based analysis. 

"Asset Control is particularly honored to join AFTA in recognizing Wachovia's hybrid data management strategy - a truly innovative approach for optimizing costs and increasing efficiency to support future business growth," said Ger Rosenkamp, CEO of Asset Control. "By pursuing the hybrid approach to data management, Wachovia is poised to support aggressive business initiatives and growth. Wachovia continues to be recognized by the industry for its ability to turn IT initiatives into measurable business benefits and we are pleased to play a part in their success." 
  
Wachovia expanded its data management initiative this year by adopting Accenture Managed Reference Data Service (MRDS) - an outsourced service that integrates multiple sources of reference data into a single security reference master by processing the data feeds through business rules that normalize, validate, arbitrate, match and consolidate the data.  The service provides daily reference data updates for approximately 4.5 million securities, including global equities, fixed income and derivative products, and the IT infrastructure, labor, and processes for data cleansing and management.  Accenture MRDS technology is based upon Asset Control's AC Plus and AC SecurityMaster modules. 
 
"Wachovia recognizes that quality reference data and the automation of reference data management have a positive correlation to operational efficiency and superior performance," said Sandy Weil, senior executive at Accenture and global sales lead for Accenture MRDS. "We congratulate Wachovia on this well-deserved honor for innovation and bold industry leadership."
 
AFTA, hosted by Waters magazine, Dealing with Technology, and Hedge Fund & Investment Technology, recognizes industry excellence in the deployment and management of financial information technology within the wholesale investment banking community.  To be considered for AFTA's Best Enterprise Data Management Initiative, financial institutions must demonstrate an innovative data management strategy that improves data quality and reduces data costs across the enterprise.

About Asset Control
Asset Control is the world’s leading provider of Centralized Data Management (CDM) to financial industry firms.  With a complete range of in-house and outsourced options, Asset Control delivers Total Data Management (TDM), a hybrid approach to data management.  The selection 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 Abbey National, ABN AMRO, Allied Irish Banks PLC, Barclays Capital, Barclays Global Investors, Bayerische Landesbank, BBVA, Calyon, Commerzbank, Convexity Capital Management, E*TRADE Securities, LLC, IBM (Dresdner Bank), Grupo Santander, Harvard Management Company, HSH Nordbank, HypoVereinsbank, ING, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, LCH.Clearnet, Robeco Groep, Société Générale, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, Union Investment and Wachovia Corporation 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.