London, 28th April 2004 - Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) has implemented OPICS, the treasury, derivatives and capital markets solution from Misys Wholesale Banking Systems (Misys), for its subsidiary in Dublin. OPICS has been installed at Engitech, who provide facility management services to BPM Ireland Plc, where the bank has no IT infrastructure. The bank went live with OPICS in January 2004, following less than 4 months of implementation.

The OPICS implementation has brought control of the bank’s accounting functions
in-house, rather than having them in the hands of an external provider. By using OPICS, BPM aims to reduce the manual effort and complexity currently involved in management accounting, and to achieve more sophisticated reporting through OPICS’ provision of flexibility and real-time analysis.  

Aldo Aletti, General Manager, BPM Ireland, said: “We are very pleased with the quality of the support received during the implementation by the Misys team.  OPICS provides the sophisticated functionality and integration capabilities that enable us to centralise and streamline our operations. In addition, by outsourcing the IT infrastructure to Engitech, the branch can focus wholly on our business requirements.”

Clive Whincup, CIO of BPM’s head office in Milan, adds: “The success of this project proves that we have chosen the right vendor, as Misys understands the local and global requirements of international banks. OPICS has enabled us to significantly lower costs, improve risk management and more easily access and analyse data to meet demanding management and regulatory requirements.”

OPICS was selected following a 6 month evaluation process involving 3 competing systems. The solution was chosen because of its richness of functionality, including automatic confirmation of FX & MM, connectivity with Bloomberg, and its flexible capabilities for straight-through processing (STP).

Gavin Tingle, Business Development Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Misys, comments: “Multiple systems supporting various international offices can significantly increase a bank’s cost base.  With the pressure on reducing costs, many banks are looking to consolidate systems by creating a global processing environment.  OPICS is a proven solution with wide instrument coverage and full departmental support, on a single platform, that helps our customers to streamline processes and lower costs across global boundaries. Most importantly, it still provides the flexibility to customise services to meet local needs.”

For more information, please contact:
Shamira Alidina / Adelaide Harrison
Write Image
+44 (0) 20 7959 5400
Shamira.alidina@write-image.co.uk / Adelaide.harrison@write-image.co.uk

Andy Coulter
Head of Marketing & Business Planning
Misys Wholesale Banking Systems
+44 (0)20 8879 1188
andy.coulter@misys.com

About Banca Popolare di Milano
Founded in 1865, Banca Popolare di Milano is a cooperative bank with 572 branches in Italy and branches in London, New York and Dublin. The bank focuses on retail banking, asset management treasury and capital markets.

About Misys Wholesale Banking Systems
Misys Wholesale Banking Systems is a trusted provider of innovative technology solutions. Over 1,000 employees in 30 offices around the world have built up the necessary domain expertise to deliver world-class solutions with an understanding of local requirements. Misys Wholesale Banking Systems' staff are committed to developing and supporting a product family that embraces trade finance, international banking, treasury & capital markets, confirmation matching, continuous linked settlement (CLS), ebanking, middleware and financial messaging.

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems is part of Misys plc’s Banking & Securities Division, which serves over 1,200 customers across more than 120 countries, including 92% of the world's top 50 banks and 56% of the top 250. (Source: The Banker, July 2003).
Misys Plc, the global software products and solutions company, serves customers in the international banking and securities, international healthcare, and UK retail financial services sectors. The group partners with its customers to deliver outstanding IT solutions to essential industries. For the year ended May 31, 2003, Misys reported revenues in excess of $1.8 billion. Misys employs more than 6,000 people internationally.