Banque de Luxembourg (BDL) has decided to implement Aim Software’s flagship Golden Master solution, with a view to optimising the delivery of validated pricing data and static data from Telekurs, Bloomberg and Wertpapiermitteilungen (WM) into Avaloq. Josef Sommeregger, head of business development and sales at Aim, explains the details to Reference Data Review.
In the course of implementing Avaloq as its new core banking system, the bank decided to overhaul its data management infrastructure. According to the Luxembourg-based bank, rising market demands meant it had to further enhance existing data processing systems. “One of the central drivers for the migration to Gain Golden Copy for static data was the introduction of the core banking system Avaloq at BDL,” says Sommeregger.
Aim Software currently provides the only ‘certified’ interface to Avaloq in the market, he claims, and this will be used by BDL to feed Avaloq with reference data from Telekurs and WM. Aim offers a certified adapter to Avaloq for prices, static data and corporate actions.
Discussions about the implementation of the solution began because BDL was one of the central users of Gain in Luxembourg for many years, says Sommeregger. “The respective discussions stem back to the decision to revamp the internal core banking infrastructure and the date for the implementation is fully aligned with the deployment plan of the Avaloq System. On the pricing side, BDL required a future proof solution to extend the current pricing logic by adding several further data sources including Bloomberg,” he elaborates.
The bank conducted market-wide analysis of available data management suites, before it chose Aim’s solution. “The comparison included all companies with Avaloq know how. Aim was confirmed as the right partner for its outstanding track record in the Avaloq community with more than 10 live installations,” says Sommeregger.
Anita Obadia, project manager at BDL, adds: “Having relied on Aim Software for more than four years, we have chosen to upgrade to Aim Software’s Gain Golden Master solution because of its robust and proven track record with more than 10 of the leading Avaloq banks as user base. We will now be able to work within a multi-source environment to manage our pricing and reference data via a scalable platform that can grow along with our future needs.”
Growing demands in data processing require the integration of numerous different data feeds such as Bloomberg, Telekurs and WM, according to the bank. Gain Golden Master will process instrument requests from Avaloq and other internal software solutions, and validate data by applying the client’s specific business rules. The validated data will then be directly fed back into Avaloq through the Gain|Avaloq adapter. BDL hopes that the solution will allow it to be able to carry out a more streamlined data scrubbing process, a task that it says demanded time consuming and error prone manual processing in the past.
Aim Software implemented its service oriented architecture framework together with Gain SmartClients in order to meet its client’s requirements, says Sommeregger. “Since the Gain Golden Copy environment allows for the definition of virtually any logic by the definition of business rules in a generic rule framework for pricing data, one of the greatest challenges was certainly to arrive at a comprehensive specification,” he adds.
This had to include all relevant business rules, while keeping the project scope at a level to respect the set project timelines, he continues. “The process was supported by the expertise of Aim gathered in previous projects and by the initial parameterisation, which stays at the core of any implementation of the Gain Golden Copy system,” claims Sommeregger.
“Having produced a comprehensive specification we have embarked on adapting the current logic in Gain to meet the specific needs of BDL. Owing to the maturity of the parameterisation already existing and the ability to alter the logic by drawing upon a visual implementation framework, we are confident we will be able to finish the implementation this year with a planned going live in February,” he says.
Martin Buchberger, head of marketing and sales at Aim Software, comments: “It is important for us to work together with our clients on a long term basis so we can best understand the market’s needs and shape our product roadmap accordingly. Since we already service many of the leading Avaloq banks, we get very valuable input on the further development of the Gain platform and the certified Gain Avaloq adapter. This helps us to keep our product future proof and extensible.”
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