Fundtech in front for CLS vendors

Closest behind Fundtech is New York-based Wall Street Systems, whose suite of CLS products is used by nine of the 39 CLS-live banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.

London-based vendor Logica counts six Settlement Members as clients of its Logica CLS Manager (LCM) product, including Credit Suisse First Boston and Italian bank Unicredito.

Some of the remaining 11 Settlement Member banks have opted to develop their own proprietary software to process CLS instructions.

Now, cash management systems vendors are pitching their products to a second wave of banks set to go live on CLS. They fall into two categories -- a second group of Settlement Members who will join CLS in 2003, and third parties -- banks that have chosen to use CLS via the systems of a Settlement Member.

To win clients in this sector, Fundtech has launched a system called Payplus for CLS Third Party Edition, which enables third parties to manage their own CLS activities. It has also secured CLS shareholder Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken as a client for Payplus. The Swedish bank expects to become a Settlement Member of CLS next year, when CLS adds the Scandinavian currencies to the system.

Logica is taking the process even further, to automate fourth-party agreements. That’s the process by which third-party banks offer CLS settlement to their client banks via the third party’s Settlement Member. "The smaller bank retains the accounting and risk relationship with the client, but the larger bank handles the CLS processing," explained a spokesperson for Logica in London.

WSS, meanwhile, recently expanded its suite of CLS products to include a system for Settlement Members to install in order to process payments from their third parties.

Many vendors told FX Week they had witnessed increased interest in their products since the launch of CLS on September 9. "We’ve seen a lot of interest from banks after the initial go-live. Many were waiting to see when it would happen," said Garfield Hayes, head of marketing communications at Wall Street Systems in London.

"Where before we were beating down doors, now potential third parties and Settlement Members are seeking us out," echoed Matthew Pittman, project manager at VisibleIT in Sydney, which makes software that monitors the process of a CLS trade.

"We’ve had two new CLS assignments start since September 9 and interest in three more."

Other technology vendors developing CLS software include Aleri, a New York based software firm, and London-based City Networks.