DSTi forms trading alliance with SunGard

DST International (DSTi), an order-processing provider to the fund management industry, has formed a strategic alliance with SunGard Trading Systems that will allow fund managers to fully integrate DSTi's portfolio management services with SunGard's trading capabilities.

The deal is related to DSTi's back-office HiPortfolio/2 and front-office HiInvest products that offer order management, compliance and reconciliation for fund managers. DSTi clients can now choose to supplement existing services with SunGard's Transaction Network (STN) for trade execution. The trading capability will be enabled via the existing DSTi platform, and DSTi will receive a commission fee from SunGard for the introduction of business. The connection of the two systems aims to create full straight-through processing (STP), which would enable a single input to be handled from indication of interest through to execution, comfirmation, settlement and reconciliation. This should eliminate half of the expensive human-error risk present in entering orders in one system and then re-keying/telephoning the transaction via another.

"Linking to STN will provide yet another positive step towards the realisation of real-time straight through processing for DSTi's HiInvest and HiPortfolio/2 clients, from order creation through to execution and beyond, enhancing buy-side to sell-side connectivity," SunGard Trading Systems president and chief operating officer Tom King claimed.

Steve Edkins, chief operating officer of DSTi, added: "This partnership also enables our clients to benefit from the sophistication of the DSTi applications coupled with the added value of SunGard's connectivity and execution capabilities. The combined solution brings together a single STP solution for both order flow and execution."