7 February 2007

Software tools developed by the Fintecs team will play a key role in the important area of Planning and Testing for MiFID compliance.

Fintecs MD, Tony Gratton said, "We have worked closely with Microsoft in the development of our MiFID compliance tools and are, of course, delighted that Microsoft has included our offering as part of its package of solutions. Equally we are delighted to be allied with other leading Microsoft financial services partners such as Hewlett Packard and SunGard in what will prove a crucially important compliance exercise for major financial companies in the coming year."

Microsoft announced the launch of a new package of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) solutions for what it sees as the main problem areas of MiFID: Planning and Testing, Client Classification, Best Execution, Reporting, Market Connectivity, Reference Data and Trade History, Systematic Internalization and Systems Integration. The eight technology solutions, which can be offered as a complete package or as individual components can be implemented according to a financial institution's individual compliance needs.

According to industry research, it is estimated that over 4,000 financial institutions will be affected by the EU directive and, with the deadline only ten months away, a considerable number are still looking at ways to upgrade their systems to ensure they comply with these new requirements.

"By working extremely closely with our partners we have developed an offering that serves all financial institutions needs to comply with the EU directive," said Ian Warford, director of securities and capital markets at Microsoft. "And because Microsoft technology is familiar to people working in financial institutions and easy to integrate with existing IT systems, the total budget required to implement a solution that ensures full compliance with MiFID is very cost effective."

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