Capco is to acquire the security master file platform of Dutch bank ING Group as part of a deal under which Capco Reference Data Services will provide ING with managed data services under a seven-year deal.
In a move reminiscent of IBM’s acquisition of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein’s data management platform as part of IBM’s Project Greenwich initiative (Reference Data Review, January 2004), taking over ING’s SMF platform will allow Capco to offer other clients outsourced managed reference data services, a component that had previously been missing from Capco Reference Data Services’ lineup of offerings.
Capco reckons the acquisition of ING’s security master gives it the first platform in the marketplace with the ability to handle all asset classes and all data types, an assertion that couldn’t be independently verified by press time. However, notwithstanding other offerings in the area – specifically, Accenture’s use of the Asset Control platform and SunGard’s use of its own Fame referencePoint platform – the Dresdner platform, itself based on Asset Control’s ACdex, was broad in its coverage of both asset classes and data types.
Whatever the case, the move is a strategic one for Capco. Predrag Dizdarevic, executive vice president of Capco and president of Capco Reference Data Services, says the company plans to integrate ING’s proprietary J2EE- and Oracle-based reference data technology solution and extensive functional coverage within its existing platform. He lauds the ING SMF’s multi-million security coverage, over half of which, he says, refers to derivative securities.
The addition, then, will result in Capco’s ability to offer coverage of the full range of listed and over-the-counter instruments, including equities, fixed-income, derivatives, money markets and other OTC securities. Capco’s offerings will be able to handle all data types, Dizdarevic says, including counterparty, legal entity hierarchy, descriptive data, pricing, and corporate actions. The new capabilities will complement those of Iverson as well as Capco Reference Data Services’ existing data sourcing, validation, cleansing, reconciliation and distribution services (Reference Data Review, October 2004).
The ING deal will allow Capco Reference Data Services to provide clients with security master technology, known as the CRDS Container, that integration between client applications that consume the data and Capco’s managed services. This Container will act as a centralized repository from where data will be distributed to downstream applications, using recognized messaging protocols, respond/request service-oriented connectivity or file extraction and transfer.
ING’s security master platform, implemented two years ago, had been designed to address distribution requirements of downstream applications. Specifically, Dizdarevic says, it allows users to subscribe to securities of interest, selected attributes or preferred data sources, which can prove to be mission-critical considerations in certain situations, such as where notifications that data has arrived at certain applications for service level agreement purposes. The platform can handle data from multiple providers, and its rich data model, Dizdarevic says, will allow Capco to offer high-volume one-to-many client service.
And of course, it brings in a major client. Under the deal, Capco Reference Data Services will provide ING with managed reference data services for a seven-year period. The bank expects this to result in immediate cost reductions and operational benefits. The contract makes ING the 30th bank to subscribe to Capco Reference Data Services’ offerings.
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