Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Banco Espirito Santo Selects Calypso Technology for Front Office Derivatives Trading

  • Leading Portuguese bank to use the Calypso trading solution for FX, Interest Rate, Credit, Equity and Commodity derivatives
  • New contract signed following successful back office implementation

San Francisco, July 06, 2010 — Calypso Technology, Inc., a global application software provider of an integrated trading, risk and processing platform to financial institutions and corporate treasuries, today announced that Banco Espirito Santo SA (BES), an international Portugal-based commercial bank, has selected Calypso Technology’s front office module to support their trading of a wide range of financial derivatives following a successful implementation of the Calypso back office solution for the bank’s FX business.


By selecting the Calypso system, BES will have a platform that will enable the bank to multiply its business capacity by offering services across multiple asset classes. The Calypso system will support the bank’s trading of cross-derivative products, including interest rate, credit, equity, FX and commodity derivatives from an integrated trading, risk management and processing platform. The Calypso system provides out-of-the-box interfacing with price information from Reuters foundation API, Bloomberg data license, Markit reference IDs and asset pricing service, as well as the DTCC.

Pedro Cruchinho, Financial Markets Senior Manager at BES, explains, “We were looking for a system that would enable us to maintain innovation, improve customer service and increase profitability. It was also important that the solution could be rolled out across numerous geographical locations that are connected and managed from our current central production environment. The relationship that we have formed with Calypso Technology affirms our strong brand image by forming an alliance with a premier partner, and will enable us to grow, expand geographically and achieve cost savings through consolidation of our system infrastructure”, he continued.

The bank is already deploying the Calypso system for back office processing and accounting for FX Spot, FX swaps, FX Forwards and non-deliverable forwards (NDF). BES is planning to add more asset classes to the Calypso back office platform later this year, with Money Markets being the first priority.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with BES, and the selection of Calypso’s front and back office modules by BES demonstrates our continued success in Southern Europe,” comments Charles Marston, CEO and chairman, Calypso Technology. “We are committed to supporting institutions that wish to sustain growth and develop both regionally and globally. We look forward to expanding our business in the region.”

About Banco Espirito Santo SA (BES)
Banco Espírito Santo SA (BES) is a Portugal-based commercial bank. Together with its subsidiaries, the Bank provides a range of financial products and services, including credit and debit cards, loans, asset management, brokerage, investment and insurance. It operates through a network of 743 branches, 29 Private Banking Centers and 28 Corporate Centers. The Bank operates internationally in Angola, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain and the United States, among others.