Misys International banking Systems is to release a new version of its flagship Midas product designed to cater for a raft of new regulatory requirements and industry standards, such as CLS, STP and the new Basel Accord.
Scheduled for shipping in the first quarter 2002, Midas Release 4 "will provide the foundation" for applications designed to address the requirements of Basel II and T+1 securities settlement, says John Bertrand, Midas product centre manager.
The system’s existing MT5xx message generation facility is in the process of being converted to ISO 15022 standards, with the range of MT5xx messages produced by the system also being extended.
"With more than 200 Midas client sites having licensed the system’s Securities Trading application, it is therefore, of strategic importance that Midas can offer support for the new ISO 15022 message standards," says Bertrand.
Additionally, it is planned that Midas will incorporate facilities to automate the processing of some incoming MT5xx messages, as well as a securities reconciliation capability. This planned new feature will provide a full securities message generation and straight-through processing (STP) solution to complement the existing STP capability available in Release 4 with the Midas Funds Transfer application, says Bertrand.
He continues: "Another major feature of Midas Release 4 will be the new Midas Credit Risk application, which is the initial phase of a development designed to ensure compliance with the new Basel Capital Accord. It will provide a customer-centric view of a client’s total business, and allow banks to set credit limits by business line, and subsequently review positions against those limits in real-time.”
The new shipment will also include a Collateral Register, also customer-centric and designed to record any security or other items of value lodged by a client, against which a line of credit can be extended.
Other facilities being made available include support for new international accounting standards, such as FASB 133, SAS 33 and IAS 39, which relate to the US, Singapore and international markets respectively. A new market data feed-handling capability will enable mark-to-market revaluations and accurate calculation of credit risk exposures to be carried out, in line with proposed international accounting standards.
In addition, the Midas CLS solution for FX trade processing - already implemented at a number of banks and used in pre-operational CLS trials - will be available as a standard component of Midas Release 4.
A number of other previously trialled applications will also be offered as standard features of the new release, including support for IBAN (International Bank Account Numbers) and recent enhancements to the Midas suite of applications for commercial and syndicated lending and treasury, including improvements to FRA/IRS processing and the introduction of Repos processing.