Author: Julie Duncan

Product development and client support drives business growth

Posted on by Julie Duncan

We’ve made a few changes at ALMIS® International to grow the business and improve the services we offer our clients.

We’re building on the success of ALMIS®

This suite of solutions is the software of choice for over half of the building societies and many banks in the UK. Our Cobalt® Treasury Management System seamlessly integrates with ALMIS®. Because Regulatory Reporting is such an increasingly important requirement for companies, we’ve re-engineered our module from the ground up as a standalone solution in Front Office +. It’s fast, easily maintained and supports multiple taxonomies. Our aim is to make it the best Regulatory Reporting software on the market. As regulators look to get data more easily from banks, the question is, can you afford not to have it?  And Middle Office +, a dedicated platform application for all balance sheet management, will be formally launched this year.

Testing is important to how we develop our software

We’re constantly improving the quality of our products so that we get things right first time. By embedding this process in the whole system, we can be more focused, transparent and responsive to our clients. Over the last few years there has been more focus on information security and banking regulations around out-sourcing to the cloud. With these considerations in mind, we’re testing towards ISO27001 on recovery and resolution on ALMIS® Cloud. We deliver this service in partnership with Microsoft Azure and nearly two thirds of our clients have switched to our hosting platform.

We’ve divided the business into two departments

Colin Johnson, Chief Product Officer, will now look after the client facing services while John Muir, our Chief Operating Officer, continues to focus on products and internal delivery. This includes our upgraded hosting platform, ALMIS® Cloud, and a new independent testing department led by our Quality Assurance Manager, Georgina Macleod.

Maintaining a pipeline of talent is integral to our growth

We’ve also taken on eight new hires, four of whom are on our Graduate Training Programme. We also invest in training and our Senior Financial System Analyst, Luke Di Rollo, has become the first person in the company to complete the ALMA CertBALM® qualification. Scott MacLennan, our Financial System Analyst, is starting the course in March.

Virtual UGM’s

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Virtual User Group Meetings in January 2021

Due to COVID we could not hold our usual annual gathering this year and as we look forward to 2021, in addition to our webinars, we are holding 4 product updates for giving software users development updates, and for users to share experiences and future requirements. Please register for the sessions you wish attend. Please note these are client only events.

Cobalt® (Jan 7, 1-3pm)

• Latest developments
• Roadmap
• User feedback


Front Office® (Jan 12, 1-3pm)

• IRRBB, 6 shocks and an annual EVE measure, impact of near to zero and negative rates
• PRA 110 and Liquidity Management
• New CRR2 developments – a new NSFR and a look at the changes to RWA calcs, large exposures and CVA
• User feedback


ALMIS® Hosted on Azure (Jan 15, 1-3pm)

• What’s new 
• Customer experiences


FO+:RR®(Jan 18, 1-3pm)

• Product Update 
• User feedback


Middle Office+® (Jan 21, 1-3pm)

• Where we are, and how we are getting on upgrading clients to MO+.
• How to get started with MO+
• MO+ and Power BI


Everything that you wanted to know about Climate Risk (but were afraid to ask!)

Posted on by Julie Duncan

ALMIS® International hosted another successful webinar with our partner and Climate Risk specialists Urgentum. This webinar is now available to view.

Urgentem are an award-winning independent provider of emissions data, climate risk analytics and advisory to the finance industry for robust carbon-investment strategies. This webinar provided an overview of climate risk to get banks and building societies up to speed on the issues that matter.

This webinar covered the full spectrum of climate risks including:

Types of Physical Risk

• Acute (extreme weather events which are becoming ever more frequent and intense)
• Chronic (accelerating sea level rises and arctic ice melt)

Types of Transition Risk

• Market
• Technology
• Policy

We explored each risk type (and their relevance) and encouraged participants to join in with questions and feedback throughout the webinar.

Urgentem speakers: Ian Stannard, Senior Engagement Manager.

VIEW WEBINAR

EBA Standardised Interest Rate Shocks: the ALMIS® solution

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UK and European Banks should now be managing IRRBB in compliance with the EBA Guidelines. In particular banks should be calculating EVE (a form of Economic Value) from the six prescribed parallel and non-parallel interest rate shock scenarios. The recently enhanced ALMIS® software delivers an automated solution to these Standardised Interest Rate Shocks, making it straightforward to comply with the quarterly test.

System requirements:

The guidelines apply numerous requirements to a bank’s IRRBB risk policies, processes and controls and detailed requirements for the bank’s ‘IRRBB IT system’. Unsurprisingly, the system needs the capability to calculate economic value and earnings-based measures of IRRBB, as well as other measures of IRRBB prescribed by regulators. Other more specific system requirements are complemented by requirements aimed at data quality and integrity. It is hard to envisage achieving compliance with these system requirements without an appropriate ALM solution. A look at how the six standardised interest rate shocks (‘SIRS’) are applied further demonstrates that case …

SIRS calculations:

In calculating the impacts of the shocks a bank should in particular apply a list of stated principles which cover a range of topics, for example:

  • principal and interest cashflows to the next repricing date must be included
  • specific considerations on the treatment of commercial margin
  • instrument-specific interest rate floors should be considered
  • separate calculations for each currency meeting certain materiality tests
  • prescribed curves formulaically derived from the current risk-free curve.

Banks should perform the calculations at least quarterly as prescribed in the guidelines.

Outlier test:

where a decline in EVE exceeds 15% of Tier 1 capital under any of the scenarios the bank must inform its regulator (in addition the measurement should be included in the ICAAP).

ALMIS® solution:

ALMIS® International has for some time offered a SIRS solution. In the latest in our series of ALMIS® International Bank ALM client webinars, the enhanced version of the ALMIS® SIRS solution was demonstrated to clients.

How it works:

The ALMIS® SIRS tool is an out the box solution, providing banks with easy to use functionality which eliminates manual processes. The software generates the required curves automatically from a single risk-free curve and then calculates and reports the EVE impact for each of the 19 prescribed time buckets for each shock. Impacts on capital and outlier test compliance are included in the suite of standard reports (including separate Basel and EBA reports).

For further information or to arrange a brief demo, please contact us on: [email protected]

Chief Product Officer Appointment

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UK-based bank financial risk management software developer ALMIS® International today announces the appointment of its non-executive director Colin Johnson to a new executive role as Chief Product Officer.

Colin, who joins from Charter Court Financial Services where he was Head of Prudential Risk, will bring extensive ALM experience, especially in interest rate and liquidity risk.

On Colin’s appointment ALMIS® International CEO and Founder Joe Di Rollo commented: “Bank Asset Liability Management remains at the core of our offering, and Colin’s expertise in the area is widely recognised, so we’re delighted to bring him into the team in this new executive role..…”

Prior to his most recent role Colin worked in senior roles within Santander UK and Lloyds Banking Group, having previously spent 10 years managing treasury, ALM and liquidity issues within the Building Society sector. For several years he was also the Chairman of ALMA, an industry wide association covering ALM risks across the UK Banking and Building Society sectors. In that role Colin was instrumental in ALMA’s development of CertBALM, the industry recognised benchmark qualification in Bank and Building Society ALM.

About Almis International

ALMIS® International, founded in 1992 by Joe Di Rollo, identified the need for an Asset Liability Management system to calculate total balance sheet interest rate risk. Since then, the ALMIS® system has been developed into a comprehensive, flexible and regulatory compliant system offering ALM, regulatory reporting and hedge accounting solutions. In 2017 the company launched its Treasury Management System Cobalt® which integrates with ALMIS®.

For further enquiries please contact:

E: [email protected]

ALMIS® International RegTech Innovations

Posted on by Julie Duncan

ALMIS International is delighted to announce the launch of its new RegTech solution, FO+ Regulatory Reporting. Re engineered from the ground up, this new application features dynamic taxonomy selection, is more efficient and, in time, will support additional categories of regulatory returns. This innovative application enables the software to support new taxonomies efficiently.

The user experience is enhanced, with flexible grids offering Excel-type functionality such as expanding/collapsing rows and reordering columns. Validating, recalculating and importing/exporting to Excel is more performant than in the previous version of ALMIS® Front Office.

This new regulatory reporting application is designed to integrate seamlessly with clients’ existing ALMIS® set ups.

FRONT OFFICE +: REGULATORY REPORTING LAUNCHED AT ALMIS® UGM 2019

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We welcomed 50 delegates from 31 Banks and Building Societies to our event in Leicester on 20th-21st of November 2019.

It was a good opportunity to learn more about our solutions, discuss future developments and network with industry peers.

We were delighted to announce that a PostgreSQL compatible version of FO+ RR is now available for Regulatory Reporting module clients. Installation documentation and guide will be circulated to relevant clients separately. 

Delegates Feedback

“Very useful overview of new features & topical issues”
“Good to meet other users & nice to put faces to names for those that work in ALMIS”
“Topics were very well structured & covered all relevant features”
“All sessions were very informative and detailed, especially FO+:RR®and MO+®”
“The event was fabulous. I hope to receive an invitation to the event for next year.”
“Informative, detailed and well delivered, see you next year!”

Two latest products: Front Office +: Regulatory Reporting, and Middle Office +

Posted on by Julie Duncan

At ALMIS® International we have been developing our software solutions continuously for over a quarter of a century. In 2019 the pace of our development activity has moved up a gear, in particular with two key developments which will both reach launch in Q3/Q4:-

  • Our new regulatory reporting system, Front Office +®: Regulatory Reporting
  • Our dedicated bank data platform, Middle office +®

Roadmap

These two key developments flow from some of the most fundamental elements of our ongoing product development strategy:-

  • Maintenance of our offering on a modern platform
  • Scalability
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Automation

Front Office + : Regulatory Reporting

Available for early adopters from September 2019 (roll-out the rest of our clients from October) FO+: RR is the brand-new system in which all new regulatory taxonomies will be developed. In addition to the functionality of our existing regulatory reporting module, FO+: RR will support multiple taxonomies simultaneously, will allow viewing the contents of XBRL files, will work faster, and operates on a dedicated SQL database. Clients will be invited to participate in an introductory webinar in early October. After release, FO+: RR will be developed to support a wider range of regulatory returns (incl. BoE statistical).

View more on Front Office +: Regulatory Reporting here.

Middle Office +

After sustained effort over several years, through specification, design, development and testing, we are excited to bring the first truly dedicated bank data platform to the market. Built upon a new data model developed specifically for modern bank balance sheet management, MO+ offers various benefits including:-

  • Greater flexibility for Extract, Transform and Load into MO+
  • Extended data validations
  • Dashboards to view data position
  • Flexible Data Grids to review and cleanse data
  • Enhanced audit log
  • Transformation/Calculation functionality
  • Enables data analytics on extended MO+ data

View more on Middle Office + here.

Conclusion

The roll out of these key new developments of course comes at the same time as various other major developments for ALMIS®/Cobalt® clients this year, including the roll out of our New ALMIS® Hosted platform. This is all part of our determination to offer clients the best comprehensive offering of ALM and related solutions in the domestic market.   

ALMIS® International launches New ALMIS® Hosted

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Introduction

The ALMIS® Hosted platform, offered in partnership with Microsoft Azure, has been available to clients for several years. A significant proportion of our client base is now on ALMIS® Hosted, with uptake increasing steadily. Another well-established trend is the increased focus on information security, driven in part by heightened regulatory focus.  We have therefore conducted a review of our Hosted offering, with an emphasis on security and resiliency. The outcome of the review is an upgrade to the ALMIS® Hosted platform which is now available to existing hosting clients, roll out starting w/c 19 August 2019 and is expected to complete in Q4 2019.

New/refreshed objectives 

The basic benefits remain unchanged: matters such as infrastructure, software installation, server maintenance become our responsibility, leaving our client’s IT resource to concentrate on other business activities. In developing the new platform, we are delivering various additional benefits, in particular several new security features: SSL encryptions for data-in-transit, BitLocker encryptions for data-at-rest, market leading AI-powered Endpoint protection with synchronised heartbeat, malware scanning, file and boot record protection, exploit protections and active adversary mitigations.

Technical spec 

Using the fastest CPU and storage currently available on Azure, the new platform can deliver material improvement in computational speed and file handling. A detailed technical specification can be made available on request.

Cost considerations 

The new platform has been designed to be fully scalable, to meet clients’ changing requirements. The pricing model, based primarily on user count, reflects this scalable approach. Full details are available on request.

Conclusion 

Compliance is constantly uppermost in the thinking at ALMIS® International, and we regard this upgrade as an essential step in that context. The roll out of course comes at the same time as various other major developments for ALMIS®/Cobalt® clients this year, not least MO+® and FO+: RR®. This is all part of our determination to offer clients the best comprehensive offering of ALM and related solutions in the domestic market.


PRA 110: Liquidity reporting goes up another level …

Posted on by Julie Duncan

The build up

First, there was the FSA 047/048. In late 2009, in a prompt response to the downturn, the FSA introduced a tough new liquidity regime including significantly enhanced liquidity reporting requirements, focused on detailed mismatch ladder analysis, which were to be phased in over a period. During 2010 most banks began submitting, amongst others, the 47 and 48 which cover Daily Flows and Enhanced Mismatch Reporting respectively.

Next came the C66, which had its origins in a 2013 Basel Committee paper: “Basel III: The Liquidity Coverage Ratio and liquidity risk monitoring tools”. That paper provided detail on certain ‘Additional Liquidity Monitoring Metrics’ including the contractual maturity mismatch. In the European context the EBA’s response resulted in a series of new COREP ALMM returns including, after some delay, the ALMM C66 (Maturity Ladder) which was eventually introduced earlier this year. Bringing in a variety of new requirements, the C66 took liquidity reporting to a new level of complexity.

But now the UK banking market faces up to the prospect of a whole new dimension…

PRA 110

Banks will generally be required to populate and submit the PRA 110 from July 2019, but some firms will be submitting on an interim basis from November this year. Replacing the FSA 047/048 (save during interim reporting), and built upon the C66 but extending it significantly, the PRA 110 takes the levels of granularity and data requirements to yet another level. Indeed there is criticism from some that the UK regulator is trying to ‘gold plate’ standards already agreed at the European level. Some innovations/key features included within the return include the following:

  • Includes behavioural & contractual cash flows
  • Shows a counter-balancing section with market value of the firms capacity to generate cash through selling securities or using bank facilities, and this includes a line for reporting eligible collateral for that purpose
  • More detailed section on contingent flows
  • Lots of granularity around levels of stable funding and the quality of assets and collateral
  • Details on the implications of derivative positions, including contingent flows in times of market stress
  • Includes impact of monetisation actions
  • Has LCR weights and blended weights, so can be reconciled back to the LCR
  • More frequent reporting

A solution

This level of complexity makes automation of this particular new return look essential and a solution combining liquidity and regulatory reporting increasingly attractive.

At ALMIS® International we have many years experience in supporting clients’ compliance with increasingly complex prudential regulatory reporting requirements. Our futureproof assurance means clients will always enjoy the benefit of autopopulated solutions for their prudential reporting requirements. So as before with the FSA 047/048 and then the C66, we will be delivering an autopopulated solution to the PRA 110. Work is already well underway to provide this solution, initially to those clients who will be submitting from November on the interim basis.

If you would like more information on the ALMIS® Regulatory Reporting software, please contact:

Cameron Stephen
Sales & Marketing
[email protected]
0131 452 8898