Bank Hapoalim selects FinArch’s Financial Studio for global Basel II

Ghent/Tel Aviv - December 3 2008. Financial Architects (FinArch), international provider of a Finance Resource Planning (FRP) platform for the finance industry, today announced that Bank Hapoalim B. M. has selected its solution as the core platform to answer the Bank’s capital management requirements to become compliant with the Basel II regulation under Pillar I, Pillar II and Pillar III. Bank Hapoalim B.M., Israel’s number one bank, will start with the implementation of the IRB Approach in Tel Aviv to then smoothly implement the Basel II Accord in all entities of the group.

Bank Hapoalim started a software evaluation project in 2008, and assessed the competing proposals and workshop exercises, on the basis of their functional coverage and expertise in the areas of risk management, profitability calculations and regulatory reporting for capital adequacy under Basel II. A well-developed and mature data model as well as a flexible and easy-to-implement solution were the bank’s prime prerequisite, as a solid base for its planned risk and finance data warehouse.
FinArch’s Financial Studio was finally selected from a string of reputed vendors. This decision was based on multiple reasons: Financial Studio offers broad and deep integrated risk management, performance calculation and reporting functionality, which at the same time ensure the bank to be regulatory compliant.

Eyal Perry, Basel II Program Manager at Bank Hapoalim, comments: “In this respect, with FinArch, we have found the future-proof solution that seemed to be the most adapted to our environment. The scalability of the solution is essential to envisage future capital calculations based on more advanced approaches, while the solution allows to keep the Finance and Risk management infrastructures in line. Financial Studio leverages financial information with great flexibility and analytical depth, while preserving the high standards of data integrity and completeness to which Bank Hapoalim adheres to."

FinArch is considered by Gartner to be one of the global leaders in the provision of Basel II solutions. Financial Studio’s capital management solutions come with an extensive range of functionality to address the requirements of Basel II, RAROC, economic capital and other risk-related performance measurement ratios. It provides a fully integrated capital and risk management solution that delivers comprehensive support for enterprise-wide credit, market, and operational risk management, ensuring compliance with external regulations. Organisations maximise the investments made to meet the immediate short term requirements, meanwhile building a comprehensive capital framework and enterprise risk management platform with superior internal controls.

Frédéric Simons, VP Regional Business Development at FinArch, says: “Financial Studio offers high scalability in terms of volume and functionality and thus makes the perfect solution for Bank Hapoalim. This partnership also demonstrates FinArch’s further commitment to the Middle East region. We are very pleased with Bank Hapoalim’s confidence in our company, to provide them with a sophisticated risk management platform. Without any doubt Bank Hapoalim rapidly will receive return on investment.”
                                                                                                                                                                       The Financial Studio FRP platform embraces accounting, risk management, MIS and compliance solutions, and is used by numerous financial institutions worldwide. FinArch is also positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Basel II software applications. The company’s focus coupled with a solution that can be scaled to meet broader corporate performance management, has thus been recognised by the global financial markets.

About Bank Hapoalim B.M.

Bank Hapoalim B.M. (hereafter: the “Bank”) was founded in 1921 and incorporated as a limited company under the Companies Ordinance and operates in all of the various areas of banking. Over the 83 years of its existence, the Bank has developed a network of branches and an extensive array of commercial banking activities, in all areas of banking, providing a broad range of banking and financial services to its customers. The Bank also has investments, primarily in the areas of insurance and real estate, through equity-basis investments. The Bank’s activities with most of its customers are handled by two Areas: the Corporate Area and the Retail Area.

The Bank’s international operations encompass Europe, UK the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Australia, through branches, representative offices, banking subsidiaries, and asset management subsidiaries. The network of correspondent banks has expanded considerably in recent years, including Central and Eastern European countries, the CIS, Asia, and Latin America. Subsidiaries abroad are part of the Bank’s international operations, alongside those carried out via the Bank’s branches abroad.

www.bankhapoalim.co.il.

About FinArch

FinArch (Financial Architects nv), with offices in the major financial centres worldwide, is a global value leader in providing a new generation of financial management software. The concept of the platform and the integrated approach of the different modules enable innovative financial institutions to quickly implement tactical solutions meeting the overall strategic objectives in financial reporting.

FinArch provides a unique blend of domain expertise, operational services, and technology solutions that accelerate and facilitate financial institutions’ ambition to implement a cost effective and reliable financial management platform.

www.finarch.com

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