FAF Advisors Automates International Workflows with Charles River IMS
Enterprise-wide solution enables FX trading and expands derivatives coverage
Boston, Beijing, London, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo – June 10, 2010 – Charles River Development (Charles River), a front- and middle-office investment software solutions provider, today announced that FAF Advisors, Inc., the Minneapolis-based investment advisor to First American Funds, has implemented Version 8.2 of the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS), supporting 120 FAF Advisors users across its mutual fund and investment advisory operations. The project is part of FAF Advisors’ initiative to streamline international trading and enhance coverage of derivatives instruments.
FAF Advisors, Inc. is a U.S. asset management firm with more than $98 billion under management/administration in equity, fixed income, and specialty investment strategies, as of December 31, 2009. Headquartered in Minneapolis, the firm is a registered investment advisor and subsidiary of U.S. Bank National Association – a separate entity and wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp. FAF Advisors provides open- and closed-end mutual funds, separately-managed accounts, and sub-advisory services for direct investments and product intermediaries.
“Since 2003, Charles River IMS has been one of our most critical applications,” said Marcia Morgan, Managing Director, Technology. “Having an enterprise-wide front- and middle-office solution in a single platform saves time and risk over multiple applications, and ensures a complete audit trail.”
Automating international workflows was a key project goal. Charles River’s implementation team eliminated manual processes and created seamless interfaces with data and back-office providers, including Omgeo CTM for real-time electronic affirmation of international orders post-trade. In addition, Charles River IMS’ integration with FXall and key foreign exchange banks enables FAF Advisors to support foreign exchange (FX) trading.
“Not only are trades much faster across the board, but our traders can now initiate and book FX orders in real-time and multiple currencies directly from the Charles River Trader Blotter,” said Eric Thole, Managing Director, Investment Operations. “Further, we have an end-to-end solution for meeting customer demand for new investment strategies, including fixed income and derivatives instruments.”
Charles River IMS supports a broad array of listed and OTC rate and credit derivatives, including: IRS, CDS, Swaptions, CLNs and TRS Baskets, and provides advanced capabilities for improved fixed income workflows and curve construction. The system allows FAF Advisors’ users to calculate and monitor gross or net exposure, pre- and post-trade, to any instrument.
“We continue to broaden our enterprise solution with integrated capabilities that support our clients’ most critical business functions – while lowering their total cost of ownership,” said Tom Driscoll, Managing Director-Global, Charles River Development.
About Charles River Development
Charles River Development is a front- and middle-office software solutions provider to more than 300 investment firms in the institutional, wealth management/trust, alternative, mutual fund, insurance, pension fund and fund administration/custody markets in 35 countries. The Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS) is an institutional-class multi-asset, multi-currency software suite that consists of five main modules: Charles River Manager for portfolio management and modeling; Charles River Compliance for real-time pre-trade, in-trade, post-execution and end-of-day compliance monitoring; Charles River Trader for order management, electronic trading and execution management; Charles River Post-Trade for the centralized management of trade matching, confirmation, and settlement workflow; and Charles River Performance for daily performance measurement, attribution, and performance risk.
Charles River IMS features a modern, proven, N-Tier service oriented architecture (SOA) that is highly scalable and supports continuous 24x7 operations. Message-based APIs and exposed Web Services facilitate rapid systems integration.
The system is fully integrated with the Charles River Network, a broker-neutral, financial network that incorporates global real-time electronic trading via FIX (Financial Information eXchange). Charles River also offers comprehensive FIX network and implementation services, as well as hosting and application management solutions.
Founded in 1984, Charles River maintains headquarters in Boston and primary offices in Beijing, London, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo and has a local presence in every other major financial center of the world.
Charles River is the recipient of numerous recent industry awards including: Best Buy-Side Order Management System and Best Integrated Front-Office Platform, Buy-Side Technology 2009 Awards; Best Buy Side Technology Firm, Asia Asset Management Best of the Best Awards 2009; Best Risk Management System, AsianInvestor 2009 Service Provider Awards; and FinTech Top 100, American Banker/Financial Insights 2009.
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