CSK Software AG (CSK), has announced the appointment of principal consultant, STP solutions, Stephen Kell to strengthen its relationship with SWIFT and drive the company’s business development in the UK.
Kell joins CSK after four years at TCA Consulting, where he gained extensive banking experience, latterly as principal consultant specialising in STP and settlement issues. Previously he spent four years at Clearstream Banking, where he headed up the preparation of the Euro project in London and worked on settlement systems and collateral management.
He has contributed articles on a wide range of industry issues – including continuous linked settlements (CLS), securities settlements and the impact of ISO 15022 – and is a regular conference speaker, in both London and New York.
Building on his longstanding experience working with SWIFT – including the achievement of SWIFT accredited services provider status for TCA Consulting – a key part of Kell’s role will be to strengthen CSK’s links with the industry-owned co-operative, representing the company on a number of key committees.
“However, much of Stephen’s wide-ranging business development responsibility will centre on developing CSK’s role in enhancing straight through processing (STP), through better data management and system integration,” confirms UK country manager, Peter Walsh. “Focusing on our leading generic EAI engine, X-Gen for example, he will look to exploit its integration capabilities in the areas of data quality, liquidity management and collateral management and enabling the new SWIFTNet and FIX messages.”
For his part, Kell is keen to marry his understanding of the company’s product set with his broad business knowledge. “Rather than offer our impressive products on a purely stand-alone basis, my objective is to formulate broader solutions based on CSK’s strong portfolio, which range from the front-end Trader and Pricer products through Slingshot’s real time data distribution capability to X-Gen,” he says.
“In short,” he concludes, “both in working with SWIFT and developing CSK-based business integration solutions, our goal is the same – to help companies manage their operations more efficiently.”