technology « Lepus

The revolution of business information systems and their corresponding data stores has transformed how global organisations produce and use information. This has happened in three parallel realms: enterprise business applications, personal productivity and content applications, and the internet. With the emergence of holistic and semantic data integration technologies, innovative organisations have started to leverage the immediacy and relevance of unstructured and Web data. This has enabled the use of rich enterprise applications and processes, and in the reverse scenario, real-time data in edge-of-enterprise Web applications.

Mark / Credit Risk Dashboards

Since the financial crisis, several banks have reorganised the Risk Management department so that it can effectively serve as a second line of defence against the excesses of business lines. Part of this goal is to ensure that information on key risk metrics is available to all stakeholders at all times so that damage from a potential tail event can be punctually forestalled.

Business Continuity Planning

Whilst there is no doubt that there will always remain an element of unpredictability, and thereby a reactive component to business continuity facilitation and management, banks ought to minimise this uncertainty by developing more comprehensive processes and plans.

Technology Strategy – Build versus Buy

Traditionally, Investment Banks have taken a DIY approach to systems development. However, since being hit by the credit crunch, banks have been forced to reduce headcount and are faced with tighter IT budgets.

Front Office IT

As the Front Office has always been, and will continue to be the revenue generator for every bank, there continues to be a greater focus on this area within most banks at present as they try and take advantage of a global economy slowly emerging out of a catastrophic downturn.

Model Library Strategy

Whilst off the shelf solutions offer a number of packaged models, these are not seen as sophisticated enough for key market players. However, the process of integrating off the shelf packages with front office model libraries is a complex undertaking.

Back Office Technology in Russia

Prior to the credit crisis, banks were more focused on front office architecture and to an extent neglected other functions. However, firms are now more attentive and realise the importance of more cohesive enterprise architecture. Banks are also increasingly looking to expand their business into emerging economies such as Russia, though this is wrought with many challenges.

Virtualisation

Data centre virtualisation projects have a ripple effect throughout an organisation’s infrastructure and operations. Before embarking on data centre virtualisation deployments, there are a number of considerations which must be made. Collapsing multiple physical devices into software affects the people and processes supporting the data centre. Therefore, enterprises should thoroughly evaluate how business processes, administrative rights, capacity planning, performance monitoring tools and security strategies will need to change.

Rogue Trading

Banks need to start being more aware when it comes to the matter of rogue trading. This needs to be for the long term rather than just trying to appease staff, investors and the media in the short term. The preventative methods should be ongoing and a consistent process. It is no longer sufficient to just merely comply with regulation as this has clearly not worked in the past, as this report will outline. Instead, the financial industry needs to wake up to the fact that rogue trading events have occurred and will occur if the organisation’s approach does not change.

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