BBVA selects Asset Control for Europe, Latin America

Spanish bank BBVA, formed by the merger of Banco Bilbao de Vizcaya and Argentaria in 2000, has selected Asset Control to provide infrastructure to centralise and monitor the control of pricing and reference data for its risk management department.

BBVA will use Asset Control’s system to act as a central repository for real-time market data, counterparty credit information and reference data from multiple sources, including Reuters, Bloomberg, Telekurs and FT Interactive Data, as well as from internal applications. It will ultimately replace a number of proprietary databases within the bank.

The platform will capture the data from the various sources then validate and consolidate it into a composite "golden copy" set, or data of the highest level of reliability, said Ger Rosenkamp, chief executive of Beesterzwaag-based Asset Control.

The system has also been developed to feed the clean data into a business rules engine developed by Asset Control. Algorithms convert the data into yield and volatility curves, variances and other derived data, after which the business rules engine delivers it to the bank’s Algorithmics risk measurement engine.

Installation of the Asset Control system, which consolidates and cleanses data from multiple feeds, will be completed this month in Spain. It will be rolled out in Europe and Latin America later this year.

Asset Control began working with BBVA earlier this year. The bank chose its system for its flexibility and extensive tools for data cleansing, Rosenkamp said.

The implementation is part of a broader project at BBVA to revamp its risk management technology. In April 2001 the bank started working with Algorithmics to develop architecture for the integrated measurement and control of market, credit and other risks.

The deal also reflects a rising industry awareness that centralised data control is critical to meeting business challenges such as straight-through processing (STP), which is often hindered by discrepancies in data, and Basel II, the proposed new capital accord developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which effectively regulates the world’s largest banks.

The contract represents Asset Control’s first foray into Spain. The Dutch company already has a firm footing elsewhere in Europe, with customers that include ABN Amro, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank.

First introduced for risk management, the Asset Control platform has been extended for use by asset management, e-finance, fund administration and custody accounting within financial services firms and for data control for STP.