Processing & technology

Sophis, a leading provider of cross-asset, front-to-back portfolio and risk management solutions, today announced that it has appointed René Flor as its new area sales director for Switzerland and Luxembourg. René has 15 years’ experience of the investment management industry, especially in the areas of wealth and asset management, investment compliance and risk management.

Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L), the global application software and services company, today announces that it is the first to meet the market practice changes that will come into effect throughout Asia on 20 December 2009. Version 5.4 of Misys Summit FT covers all aspects of the market practice changes announced by ISDA. The enhancement was available earlier in the year and has successfully been adopted by credit derivatives customers in the Americas and Europe.

Markit, a leading global financial information services company, today announced it has agreed to acquire ClearPar from FIS.  ClearPar is an automated syndicated loan operations platform used for the settlement of par and distressed loan trades in the U.S. and Europe.

Misys (LSE: MSY), the global application software and services company, announces the launch of Summit Invest, the buy-side derivatives solution that leverages the 20 years of OTC and derivatives expertise of Misys Summit FT.

Principia Partners, the leading solution provider for the management and administration of structured finance portfolios, today announced the launch of Principia Structured Finance Platform (Principia SFP) Version 6.2. The latest upgrade helps financial institutions and investment managers to track, monitor, analyze and report on the collateral pool performance of any fixed income asset, including ABS, RMBS, CMBS, CDOs, CLOs and Covered Bonds.

SunGard today announced that it is offering foreign exchange (FX) exposure monitoring as part of its strategy to deliver value-added services to new and existing customers in the corporate commercial ecosystem. SunGard’s AvantGard FX Management is using FiREapps, a provider of on-demand FX exposure management solutions, to help corporations manage their FX risk, reduce costs and increase profits through optimized FX processes.

First Derivatives (AIM: FDP.L, IEX:GYQ.I), a global provider of software and support services to the financial services market, today announces that it has acquired a further 15 per cent interest in Kx Systems Inc ("Kx"), the California based firm which sells the market leading high-performance and time series analysis database kdb+. The total consideration for the 15 per cent. interest is US$7.5 million (approximately £4.7m). Following the completion of the acquisition First Derivatives will own 20 per cent of the share capital of Kx.

Incentage AG announces a major global expansion by establishing Incentage NA LLC. Incentage North America will offer the complete range of Incentage products, professional services and customer support. The product range now available in North America includes IMS Incentage Middleware Suite, IPC Incentage Process Cockpit, ISB Incentage Service Bus and an extensive library of standard message formats used in the financial industry.

Incentage AG announces a major global expansion by establishing Incentage NA LLC. Incentage North America will offer the complete range of Incentage products, professional services and customer support. The product range now available in North America includes IMS Incentage Middleware Suite, IPC Incentage Process Cockpit, ISB Incentage Service Bus and an extensive library of standard message formats used in the financial industry.

Following the announcement of the decision from the Committee of European Securities Regulators (Cesr) to back European Commission plans to compel transaction reporting on over-the-counter derivatives, riskart today announced the release in beta test of its new XML-based publishing module.  This will allow the publication in XML in compliance with FpML standards from its state-of-the-art OTC derivatives middle and back office system of all details concerning those derivative contracts whose underlying instrument is traded on a regulated market.