South Africa's Standard Bank is rolling out Thunderhead's enterprise communications platform in the UK to reduce operational risk across its derivative trade confirmation process.
The vendor's Now platform will be used across Standard Bank's product range, including equity, credit, interest rate, energy and foreign exchange derivatives.
The rules-based platform automates the process for producing trade confirmation documentation, ensuring that it conforms to industry standards, such as ISDA, and reducing the risk of human error.
The software also maintains a detailed audit trail of changes to trade confirmations, providing transparency and accountability for every trade, says the vendor.
Thunderhead says the technology will streamline the production of over-the-counter (OTC) derivative trade confirmations and ensure tighter control over the process.
The platform will be integrated with Web Services Integration's Xceptor tracking workflow tool which the bank is deploying to automate its securities and derivatives confirmations processes.
Trades will be fed in real time from front office systems into Xceptor. The Thunderhead Now platform is then triggered to automatically generate the appropriate confirmation.
"Even as our trading activity increases, this scaleable platform will ensure the risk of sending out an inaccurate confirmation or falling outside industry or regulatory guidelines is significantly reduced," says a Standard Bank spokesperson.
The bank expects to implement the software - which replaces a mix of legacy and in-house systems - to its international franchise in the future.