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Articles Archive
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August 2004
OpenLink Scores High Marks in Euromoney's Technology Users' Survey
As announced in Euromoney's August 2004 issue, OpenLink placed third in the overall cross-category and in the top three of six sub-categories in Euromoney magazine's financial technology users' survey. OpenLink was named first in the FX, FI, OTC, Equities, and Derivatives category; first in Cash Positioning; second in Limit Checking; and third in each of the Credit Risk, Transaction Management, and Securities Processing categories.
OpenLink - A technology agnostic
OpenLink proved its flexibility in the 1996 Sumitomo copper trading crisis. JP Morgan, OpenLink's largest client, was forced to improve its credit risk exposure software after its involvement. OpenLink adapted to meet the changed requirements by developing the risk management side of its software. "We were a small company working with a giant," said Coleman Fung, OpenLink's CEO and founder. "We did whatever they asked."
This approach was rewarded. Chase had chosen to use a well-known vendor for its commodities trading when it bought JP Morgan in 2000. "We thought this was the end," says Fung. "But JP Morgan showed Chase our software, and Chase chose to migrate to OpenLink for commodities." OpenLink now has over 90 installations for 50 clients, and 280 employees.
OpenLink continues its flexibility as a "technology agnostic". Fung says: "We are not religious about which platforms we adopt; we give our customers a choice." OpenLink provides front-office to back-office infrastructure for all asset classes on a variety of platforms. "Our strength is the openness of our system," he says. "Others are too focused - they do one thing well, but that's it."
UK mortgage bank Nationwide Building Society chose OpenLink in 2000 to replace its outdated infrastructure. It uses OpenLink for every capability and market product. "We wanted a system that was robust enough for straight-through processing and flexible enough to grow with the business," says Kevin Bernbaum, head of treasury control. "With some larger providers there is a major issue if we want to change something. As we get increasingly confident with OpenLink we are pushing the frontiers of what it can do and seeking further enhancements. It might not be the biggest kid on the block, but it has a very good product."
Fung founded OpenLink in 1992 after spending five months unsuccessfully seeking a single product adequate for all his needs at Fuji Capital Markets, a Fuji Bank subsidiary that he co-founded. He saw a gap in the market and set up his own company, using his knowledge as a derivatives trader at Chemical Bank. "I didn't want to create just another piece of derivatives software, but to make the infrastructure. I started with what I knew and scaled up the business capabilities for multiple markets." OpenLink has two franchises: Endur for energy markets and Findur for finance, the same core product with different focuses.
Fung believes banks will increasingly replace multiple products with one system. "Technology budgets are chewed up by maintaining a complicated infrastructure. Consolidating systems gets more mileage from the budget." OpenLink claims to have a quiet but effective mentality. "We have never been about marketing, we do not make big splashes. We just work with our customers and deliver what they need," says Fung - a claim backed up by the company's high cross-category score in our survey.
As seen in Euromoney's Financial Technology Users' Survey - August 2004
Copyright © 2004 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. All rights reserved.
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