IBS Journal February 2016


Nordea Bank Luxembourg live with Temenos’ Wealthsuite


Nordea Bank SA, the international private banking arm of the Nordea group, has gone live with Temenos’ integrated wealth management solution Wealthsuite after a three-year implementation. The go-live was set for October 2015–


as reported in the September 2015 issue of IBS Journal – with Nordea Luxembourg seen as a flagship for Temenos’ efforts in the wealth management sector. Jean-Philippe Bailly, COO Nordea Bank


SA, says: ‘To deliver such a level of trans- formation in three years “from decision to


production” is a remarkable result’. Wealthsuite is a recent brand name –


and is a combination of Temenos’ existing systems: the T24 core banking system at the back office and the TripleA portfolio management system at the front office, plus some Temenos Connect components for channels. This latest development is part of Nor-


dea’s major transformation plans to move from today’s 25 or so disparate systems to a mere eight, with Temenos’ suite at its heart. Temenos is pushing Wealthsuite to


Nasdaq starts ‘revolution’ with first blockchain-based transaction


Nasdaq has heralded its first transaction via blockchain as a major step forward for the technology. The exchange operator made its first


private securities transaction through its newly-created distributed ledger platform, Linq.


The proof of concept payment was


recorded on New Year’s Eve by Chain.com, a blockchain start-up that aided Nasdaq in the development of Linq. Nasdaq believes that blockchain tech- nology has applications beyond private markets, too. Bob Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq, says that the firm has begun ‘a process that could revolutionise the core or capital markets infrastructure’.


Race to the top Despite Nasdaq trying to claim the plau- dits, other companies trialled experimental blockchain payments in 2015. Officials at Symbiont, a maker of


trading platforms for settlement and clearing, responded to Nasdaq’s claim by telling journalists that it beat the exchange company to the punch last year. The smart securities firm raised $1.25 million in seed funding in June 2015 and, according to its spokesperson, ‘was the first to issue securities using blockchain


technology,’ launching in August 2015 ‘in front of 40 media [personnel] and analysts’. The rush to claim pioneer status on the use of blockchain is fuelled by the potential rewards. According to Nasdaq, blockchain technology ‘has the potential to assist in expediting trade clearing and settlement from three days to as little as ten min- utes’. As result of this, the firm continues, settlement risk could be reduced by as much as 99%.


Chained together Adam Ludwin, CEO of Chain.com, adds that the transaction was ‘seamless’ and that the vendor ‘couldn’t be happier’ with the results of the test. Chain gathered $30 million in funding


from Nasdaq, Visa and Fiserv last year, bringing its total value up to around $221 million. The start-up aims to bring blockchain into the mainstream, and is also backed by telecoms company Orange. Outside of its blockchain operations,


Nasdaq has completed a major phase of its IT revamp at Turkey’s stock exchange, Borsa Instabul. The project has been underway since the beginning of 2014. Nasdaq has also recently splashed $100 million on Chi-X Canada.


Alex Hamilton © IBS Intelligence 2016 www.ibsintelligence.com 15 In brief


National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in Egypt has implemented Swiss vendor Netguardians’ anti-fraud solution Fraudguardians. Selecting a platform that could


enhance protection and efficiency, as well as integrate with the bank’s Temenos T24 core banking system was crucial, says Tarek Abuelnaga, COO of NBK Egypt. Netguardians is a Temenos partner and offers a relatively pre-packaged solution for the T24 core banking system. Fraudguardians will be used at


NBK Egypt to identify patterns, audit activities and ensure compliance for automated reports. The implementa- tion of the system, states Netguardi- ans COO Raffael Maio, took just a few weeks.


NBK Egypt is a subsidiary of the


NBK Group, having joined it in 2007 following an acquisition of Alwatany Bank of Egypt. The deal was valued at $516 million.


Alex Hamilton


market as an integrated, ‘best of breed’ solution specifically for the private bank- ing/wealth management sector. Nordea Bank is the first using this


combination, but there was also another taker earlier this year – ABN Amro. The bank is already a user of T24 at a number of locations, which will now be extended across the group. On the way out is ERI’s Olympic core banking system, much to ERI’s dismay.


Antony Peyton


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