BUY-SIDE TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best buy-side compliance product: Fidessa Sentinel

As with a number of other major Buy-Side Technology Awards categories, Fidessa’s Sentinel product has won best buy-side compliance product every year it has entered, and 2010 proved no exception. Available either as an in-house installation or via software-as-a-service (SaaS), Sentinel boasts some of the world’s largest asset managers as clients—which means Fidessa must constantly ensure cutting-edge technology to support the platform. The product features real-time monitoring of client-mandate violations as well as regulatory and internal requirements throughout trade lifecycles, including cross-asset strategies and portfolios.

Fidessa has also added functionality to support Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS) compliance for over-the-counter (OTC) derivative trades such as credit default swaps (CDSs), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and indices. Sentinel users can also now measure their counterparty and global exposures for compliance purposes. Furthermore, the system’s rules library keeps up to date on major global regulations including the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid), Regulation NMS and UCITS, and also facilitates customized client requirements and mandates.

The vendor also recently revamped Sentinel’s cash balance-checking features in response to client concerns: Users can now monitor the state of an account at its settlement date and keep track of any balance discrepancies between transaction and settlement.

Other key features of Sentinel—web-based report generation using real-time market data, audit trails based on real-time and historical information, and real-time position views—further bolster the platform’s functional strength. For these reasons, Sentinel remains the compliance product to beat until the awards panellists reconvene next year. —SE

JUDGE'S COMMENT
Sentinel continues to be the leading standalone compliance system; in addition to this, Fidessa is developing a SaaS offering, allowing its clients more delivery/access options.

FIDESSA REACTION
“We are thrilled that Sentinel has been judged the best compliance solution for the buy side for the third consecutive year. By monitoring the market and consulting our clients, we make sure that our product development is aligned with our customers’ needs and keeps them at the forefront of compliance capabilities. In customer performance tests Sentinel continues to be proven to be significantly faster than comparable products. Fidessa remains the only buy-side vendor supplying its compliance solution in a true software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, in addition to the traditional enterprise model. This has proved compelling, enabling our clients to reduce the total cost of ownership associated with installing and maintaining a compliance system capable of meeting the complex requirements of today’s markets.”
—Robin Strong, director, buy-side strategy, Fidessa