Fortis Bank Selects TRS From Telerate and MarketXS
BRUSSELS, Belgium, LUXEMBOURG, SCHIPHOL- OOST, Netherlands, and LONDON, September 27 (ots/PRNewswire)Fortis Bank, one of the leading banks in the Benelux, today announced its decision to choose Telerate's TRS platform for all its dealing rooms in the Benelux. The decision is the result of an extensive project (the Fortis Information Providing System or FIPS) initiated by Fortis Bank two years ago with a view toward rationalizing its market data infrastructure and moving to a single platform for its mission-critical dealing room operations.
TRS will be implemented in the Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg dealing rooms. In addition, Fortis Bank will roll out around 700 Active8 positions based on the central TRS backbone, as a replacement for Kobra front-ends and stand-alone Active8 and Channel positions. Data from both Telerate and other sources will be available to Fortis FIPS users through these applications. In addition to the Active8 positions, about 15 third-party and internal applications will be migrated to TRS. The TRS and Active8 products will be delivered and supported by Telerate and MarketXS who is the exclusive Benelux distributor for Telerate.
The FIPS study consisted of an RFP procedure with a substantial number of contenders. After extensive testing, TRS and Active8 were chosen based on technology, functionality, open platform character, pricing transparency and the supportive approach of the MarketXS and Telerate staff involved. The Proof Of Concept included three months of testing, both on Solaris and Linux, on various criteria, including latency, functionality, architecture, network and security. The Proof of Concept also included stress testing.
The model used for TRS implementation consists of the so-called 'hub and spoke' concept. Two 'hubs' will be implemented, one in Brussels and one in Woerden, the technical centers of Fortis Belgium and Fortis Netherlands respectively, acting as a back-up for each other. These hubs will be the market data centers for all Fortis business lines. The country 'spokes' hook into the hubs via WAN gateways, using load balancing over the two hubs. The concept can also be expanded to other centers and countries.
Carlos del Marmol, Global Coordinator of the Fortis Market Data Competence Center (MDCC), comments: "The creation of one virtual market data backbone in the Benelux has been a long-standing strategic ambition of Fortis Bank. As a single platform for the market data distribution throughout the Fortis Bank Benelux organisation including dealing room operations, the TRS infrastructure delivers a very efficient solution for our most performance-critical business needs. TRS allows us to exchange internally generated information between the three countries and to interface to any data vendor, all in accordance with the strict Fortis standards. We are very pleased to finalize our FIPS project with the implementation of TRS."
Says Doug Jeffrey, Managing Director EMEA of Telerate: "We are extremely pleased to be selected by Fortis Bank, a valued customer and one of Europe's largest institutions, to be the provider of the core market data infrastructure and market data solutions for the Fortis dealing rooms. TRS technology is quickly gaining ground as a proven and cost-efficient solution with the implementation by Fortis Bank a further example of how TRS can help banks to meet their strategic objectives."
Jean Van den Bosch, Country Manager of MarketXS Belgium adds: "We have built a strong relationship with Fortis Bank over time, and we are proud to support Fortis Bank in its efforts to create a state-of-the-art, open and efficient market data infrastructure that meets the requirements of the many different users within Fortis."
About Fortis Bank
Fortis Bank is part of Fortis, an integrated financial services provider active in the fields of banking and insurance. With a market capitalization of EUR23.5 billion (30/07/2004) and around 53,000 employees, Fortis ranks in the top 20 of European financial institutions. In its home market, the Benelux countries, Fortis occupies a leading position which it aims to develop and bolster. Fortis is drawing on the expertise it has acquired in its home market to realize its European ambitions via growth platforms. Fortis also operates successfully worldwide in selected activities. In specific countries in Europe and Asia it effectively exploits its know-how and experience in bancassurance. Fortis is listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg and has a sponsored ADR programme in the United States. More information is available on http://www.fortis.com.
About Telerate
Telerate is the leading global provider of the world's premier benchmark fixed-income content and integrated real-time information. Telerate provides financial services firms with exclusive and unequaled benchmark capital markets content and transaction services to drive investment decisions. The firm has over 35 years experience and is headquartered in New York City. One Equity Partners, the New York-based private equity arm of Bank One Corporation is the majority shareholder; other shareholders include Japan's QUICK Corp.
About MarketXS
MarketXS is a leading provider of real-time market data technology and trading solutions. Over 350 customers use its high-availability market data infrastructure, the Finance Engine(TM), to power terminals, websites, transaction systems or any other real-time market data application for front, middle or back-office with any source of data. Rendering conventional market data systems obsolete, the Finance Engine(TM) provides maximum flexibility, rapid deployment and low total cost of ownership. MarketXS data sources include Telerate, ComStock, Telekurs, Dow Jones Newswires, Standard & Poor's, FT Interactive, etc. and direct feeds from major exchanges such as Euronext and Nasdaq. MarketXS is the exclusive distributor of Telerate products in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. For additional information please visit http://www.marketxs.com.
Web site: http://www.telerate.com http://www.marketxs.com http://www.fortis.com
Contact:
Jean Van den Bosch of MarketXS Telerate, +32-2-772-10-00, or
Jean.van.den.bosch@marketxs.com; or Doug Jeffrey of Telerate,
+44-20-7832-9503, Doug.Jeffrey@emea.telerate.com