Misys has launched a range of new solutions to consolidate and simplify its existing client offerings, including its trade solutions.

Linked by a common architecture dubbed FusionFabric, the new solutions will enable clients to integrate their Misys software easily with third-party systems, including those built by banks themselves, and provide them with access from any device.

The range of new solutions, including Misys FusionBanking, Misys FusionCapital, Misys FusionInvest and Misys FusionRisk, are designed so that banks do not need to replace existing systems. Banks can select the components they need to become more competitive.

Misys global specialist, transaction banking, Brian Edmondson, tells GTR that improving connectivity between various areas of banking and the Misys product portfolio is increasingly important for trade finance.

“This cross-bank connectivity is important for banks’ trade finance businesses, where the integration of commercial lending, capital markets and asset management practices is starting to play a bigger role in working capital finance,” he says.

Misys FusionBanking acts as a digital solution for integrating retail, commercial and business banking services including corporate treasury. It includes Misys FusionBanking Essence, another new product designed to integrate a bank’s digital channels with the FusionBanking system.

It aims to reduce the time taken for banks to design and build new financial products by up to 60%, as its in-memory analytics engine (the so-called Misys FusionBanking Insight) enables banks to profile their customers more efficiently.

“With FusionBanking, banks’ clients have the ability to actively manage their trade, cash, payments and working capital,” explains Edmondson. “Banks can bring products like pre-packaged working capital finance to market more quickly and on a consistent platform, giving their clients more options in terms of managing cash flows.”

Habib Bank Ltd (HBL) is one such bank that uses Misys’ solutions to launch a trading portal in the UAE, enabling clients to better manage their global trading activities online. HBL bought the Misys Trade Portal: now incorporated in the FusionBanking solution as the trade finance ‘module’.

Regional general manager at HBL, Afaque Majeed, says he is happy with Misys’ platform, claiming it ultimately saves clients’ money: “Users can access the details of a transaction’s historyusing state-of-the-art reporting modules,” he says. “They can design and generate a variety of reports according to their needs.”

In anticipation of the launch of the FusionFabric solutions at the Misys Emea market forum in Barcelona recently, Edmondson told GTR that the solutions are indicative of an ever-closer dialogue between technology vendors and banks when developing trade finance solutions for corporate clients.

“Banks used to say: ‘we need a trade finance system’ and we said: ‘here you go’, whereas now there’s an increasing level of dialogue between us about how to improve,” he said.

The need to move all banking products onto a single platform to mitigate risks and to have a common customer experience is something that Edmondson finds banks are increasingly conscious of. And there’s an acknowledgment amongst banks that it is often better and more cost-effective to develop intuitive systems that allow corporate clients to help themselves.

“Banks are cognisant of the fact that that they don’t have to be omnipresent,” said Edmondson. “It’s not helpful if a client has to continually ask the bank for help.”