San Francisco, CA and Charlotte, NC, 06 February 2001 – Calypso Technology, Inc. and First Union Corporation announced today that First Union's Fixed Income Derivatives division is now live on the Calypso trading and processing system.
"In our business, innovation is the key to profitability. We wanted to speed up the process of taking a new product from concept to production," said Stuart Adams, head of Fixed Income Derivatives Trading at First Union. "We chose Calypso because it provides a framework that we use to add new products rapidly front-to-back. Since Calypso provides all the market standard functionality, our IT team is free to focus on issues that add value to our business. For example, we've developed proprietary analytics that we can plug into Calypso easily."
As well as providing the flexibility First Union needed, Calypso's 100% Java architecture allows the division to achieve straight-through processing (STP) for all the products it trades.
"STP requires automated flow of information between people and departments," said Thold Gill, head of Fixed Income Derivatives for First Union. "Calypso processes in real-time so people are aware of events-new trades, amendments, and so on-as they occur. This gives us much better control of how we do our business, and the quicker access to information has benefits beyond just control. Our marketers can be more efficient with client information like trades, advices, and special instructions readily available."
A longtime Sun Microsystems customer, First Union is deploying Calypso on a Sun EnterpriseTM E420R server running the SolarisTM Operating Environment. The implementation is proceeding in stages. A number of instruments are already processed on Calypso and they expect to transfer the remaining positions in the next few months.
"First Union's experience shows that Calypso is a highly flexible derivatives solution," stated Charles Marston, CEO of Calypso. "It also validates our cross-asset strategy. First Union is using the system for interest-rate derivatives. Other customers are implementing Calypso for foreign exchange, bonds, and equities."
About First Union
First Union (NYSE:FTU), with $254 billion in assets and stockholders' equity of $15 billion at December 31, 2000, is a leading provider of financial services to 15 million retail and corporate customers throughout the East Coast and the nation. The company operates full-service banking offices in 11 East Coast states and Washington, D.C., and full-service brokerage offices in 46 states. Online banking products and services can be accessed through http://www.firstunion.com/.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Sun Enterprise and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Tuesday, February 6, 2001
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