Charles River Development says it has released Version 7.2 of its Investment Management System (Charles River IMS), an application for portfolio management (Charles River Manager), order management and trading (Charles River Trader), and compliance (Charles River Compliance).
The new version includes a Java-based compliance engine, Web-based reporting tools, an XML/XSL Trade Gateway, middle-tier business logic components in Java/J2EE, and additional Messaging and Web Services APIs for systems integration. In addition, the release incorporates a number of functional upgrades, including enhanced capabilities for portfolio modeling, mortgage trading and TBA processing (including EPN connectivity), FIX-based algorithmic trading, FIX-based fixed income allocations, and support for ISO15022 standards.
“The release of Version 7.2 is a major accomplishment in Charles River IMS’ technology evolution,” says Peter Lambertus, president and CEO at Charles River. “We’ve successfully converted our major system components and processes to new Java technology without requiring our clients to re-implement or make changes to their current technology or workflow. The new technology is deliverable today and a number of clients are already experiencing the benefits – particularly from the new compliance engine’s significant speed improvements and the extensive integration capabilities via our Messaging and Web Service APIs. What remains is to complete the migration of our GUI to Microsoft C# .NET. We are maintaining a similar, yet enhanced, look and feel so there is no need for user retraining.”
Initially launched in November 2003, Charles River’s technology vision outlines a phased migration of Charles River IMS to a distributed, service-based architecture encompassing Java, J2EE, Microsoft .NET, and Web Services technologies.
Merrill Lynch, a client since 2000, uses Charles River Compliance to trade and monitor assets across all product areas. The firm realized “three to four times performance improvement” in batch compliance runs during Beta testing of the new Java-based compliance engine, according to Jim Quigley, vice president at Merrill Lynch. “The processing improvement varies with each business unit due to the number of accounts and rules, but the runtime is substantially better and consistent across the board,” he says. Merrill Lynch plans to upgrade to Charles River IMS Version 7.2 later this year.
Charles River IMS aims to provide Omgeo CTM and OASYS integration and support for ISO 15022 and FIX allocations.
Vontobel Asset Management, another Charles River client and OASYS user, says it is looking forward to taking advantage of Charles River’s new settlement capabilities. “We appreciate that Charles River can already support the ISO 15022 standard as it moves high risk back-office processes to the front office to facilitate true STP,” says Edgar Ruffin, head of operations and information technology at Vontobel.
“Charles River IMS allows us to minimize the risk involved in settling cross border trades. We are able to integrate with our clients, custodians, and vendors to achieve an automated pre-match between the custodian and the broker to ensure a timely settlement. Furthermore, Charles River IMS will automatically pass our trades, including all settlement instructions, to OASYS and Omgeo CTM. This eliminates the bottleneck often created on the custodial side from sorting out emails and faxes.”