Our consultants aim to understand the modules proposed for implementation based on the set up and configuration options available in your business, then , map the requirements of the customer to the capabilities of your systems.

We owe our expertise to specific fields and are fully aware of the attributes, characteristics and functions within and our Functional Analysts are specialists whose skills are independent of the client they are assigned to. They define the feasibility of a solution, its implementation, its interaction with the existing systems and improve the cost effectiveness of the project/product they are involved in.

Responsibilities

• Be an authority in the area of specialization
• Analyze the existing systems and highlight areas of improvement
• Enhance opportunities by identifying new software/service to be developed
• Analyze and decompose complex requirements
• Perform gap analysis and recommend solutions
• Fulfill the role of a subject matter expert in requirement elicitation
• Document requirements, create functional specifications and prepare wireframes/flowcharts
• Oversee the development of the product as per the specifications
• Facilitate change and configuration management
• Monitor performance, discover variances and propose necessary actions.
• Validate the functionality of the end product according to the requirement specifications
• Prepare technical user manuals, system configuration documents and other technical reports

Typical skill sets

• Thorough knowledge of the area of specialization
• Analytical and investigation skills
• Working knowledge of data and process modelling
• Elicitation and comprehension skills
• Grip over database concepts like DBMS, ETL and SQL
• Organisational, presentation, interpersonal and managerial skills

We focus on the set of tasks and techniques required to work as a liaison among your stakeholders in order to understand the structure, polices and operations of your business and recommend solutions to achieve your goals.

Responsibilities

• Understand and help create the project’s business case.
• Identify and propose technology solutions viable to the business case / cost benefit
• Conduct facilitated workshops to elicit requirements both functional and technical requirements.
• Analyze and decompose complex requirements and spot technical constraints to proposed solutions.
• Work with other IT experts and address business, technical and hardware needs.
• Document requirements, create use cases and process models.
• Generate interface designs, prototypes, data flow diagrams and system models.
• Assist technical teams and strengthen their understanding of the solutions under development.
• Create test plans, test scripts and conduct system testing.
• Participate in code deployment and migration.

Typical skill set

• Understanding of SDLC
• Analysis, visualisation and prototyping skills
• Knowledge of software designing concept and working knowledge of business process
• Understanding of ETL and SQL
• Understanding of networks, operating systems and technology system interfaces
• Strong oral and written communication
• Organizational and presentation skills

Many technical systems are often referred to as infrastructure, such as networking equipment and servers, due to the critical function they provide within certain business environments. Without the information technology (IT) infrastructure, many businesses struggle to share and move data in a way that promotes efficiency within the workplace. If IT infrastructure fails, many business functions cannot be performed.

Buy & Sell Side Support

1. Trading  &  Arbitrage, a business of investment banks and brokers, often referred to as the sell side.
2. Portfolio management, a business of asset management companies and institutional investors, often referred to as the buy side.

System Interfacing

• Data mapping – Between systems and formats.
• Data-feeds – Fix or Fpml, Publish and subscribe (pub-sub) middleware infrastructure.

Exchange Connectivity – Middleware.

• Schema building for XML document structures, UDF definitions and trade embellishment.
• MxML Exchange Workflows, Datamart, Actuate table feeders and report batches.
• Trade Publishing – Transformations to and from various message formats – XML / MxML. XSL development

We focus on tighter compliance regulations which have challenged financial institutions in a variety of ways to ensure our clients enjoy a distinct competitive advantage.

Compliance risk has become one of the most significant ongoing concerns for financial-institutions. The traditional compliance model was designed in a different era and with a different purpose in mind, largely as an enforcement arm for the legal function. Compliance organizations used to promulgate regulations and internal bank policy largely in an advisory capacity with a limited focus on actual risk identification and management. However, this model has offered a limited understanding of the business operations and underlying risk exposures, as well as of how to practically translate regulatory requirements into management actions.

Compliance activities tend to be isolated, lacking a clear link to the broader risk-management framework, governance, and processes (for example, operational-risk management, risk-appetite statement, and risk reporting and analytics). More often than not, the net result is primarily a dramatic increase in compliance-and-control spend with either limited or unproved impact on the residual risk profile of a bank.

An emerging best-practice model for compliance in banking needs to rely on three core principles to address these challenges. In most cases banks need to transform the role of their compliance departments from that of an adviser to one that puts more emphasis on active risk management and monitoring. In practice it means expanding beyond offering advice on statutory rules, regulations, and laws and becoming an active co-owner of risks to provide an independent oversight of the control framework.

Given this evolution, responsibilities of the compliance function are expanding rapidly to include the following:

• Generating practical perspectives on the applicability of laws, rules, and regulations across businesses and processes and how they translate into operational requirements (Exhibit 2)
  Creating standards for risk materiality (for example, definition of material risk, tolerance levels, and tie to risk appetite)
• Developing and managing a robust risk identification and assessment process/tool kit (for example, comprehensive inventory of risks, objective risk-assessment scorecards, and risk-measurement methodology)
• Developing and enforcing standards for an effective risk-mediation process (for example, root-cause analysis and performance tracking) to ensure it addresses root causes of compliance issues rather than just “treating the symptoms”
  Establishing standards for training programs and incentives tailored to the realities of each type of job or work environment
• Ensuring that the front line effectively applies processes and tools that have been developed by compliance
• Approving clients, transactions, and products based on predefined risk-based rules
  Performing a regular assessment of the state of the overall compliance program
  Understanding the bank’s risk culture and its strengths as well as potential shortcomings

Responsibilities:

• Supervision of regulatory reporting processes to ensure tight regulatory and Firm deadlines are met
• Review of key control activities undertaken and ensuring liquidity data and reporting is materially accurate prior to submission to the regulator.
• Timely issue resolution and escalation of issues as they arise.
• Being the key point of contact for Internal/External Audit queries, ensuring all compliance and regulatory requirements are met.

Typical skills set

• Transaction Reporting & Research and exposure to FCA
• Best Execution, Pre / Post Trade, Investor Protection

FCA Reporting

Internal Capital Adequacy and Risk Assessment (ICARA)