Alexandra Balloff, Global Head of Market Data Management, WestLB, commented: "Our relationship with Gissing will be a long-term strategic partnership. Data is key for business growth at WestLB. The bank has many disparate systems dealing with data and contributions. Before implementing ConteX MCS, data contribution was slow and error-prone, resulting in delays in sending prices to market. Now with ConteX MCS, we can issue real-time prices and easily contribute prices on new instruments. We expect to increase the volume of our contributions by as much as 50% by the end of 2005."
ConteX MCS processes WestLB’s data automatically and in real-time. It takes the data from the different input sources at WestLB, and maps it to the relevant internal or vendor destination. Previously, the WestLB IT department had to add new instruments or update data manually. This meant WestLB’s prices were indicative and not tradeable. From January 2005, traders, mainly in the fixed income and credit departments, will be able to enter market prices directly, using ConteX MCS with no intervention from the IT department. They will then be able to issue tradeable prices and take advantage of market opportunities.
WestLB can now also use real-time prices routed through ConteX MCS for risk management. With ConteX MCS, WestLB can route the data to the back office and match its own real-time prices against Bloomberg or Reuters prices for mark to market P&L. WestLB has also implemented ConteX MCS as part of its operational risk strategy for data contributions. ConteX MCS is set up on separate servers at WestLB’s London and Düsseldorf disaster recovery sites. There is instant switch-over to ensure continuity of contributions in the event of a failure.
Richard Gissing, CTO, Gissing Software said: "In recent years, we’ve seen data projects become more important for banks. Inaccurate data has an impact on trading margins, risk management and operational efficiency. Being able to issue real-time prices quickly and effectively was vital to WestLB’s data strategy and one of the reasons it chose ConteX MCS. Other reasons for the selection include its automatic data mapping features, user-friendliness and the excellent customer references it has in the market."
