FinArch

Global Basel II compliance for Byblos Bank Group through Financial Studio

Ghent/Beirut, 7 June 2007 - Financial Architects (FinArch), international provider of a Finance Resource Planning (FRP) platform for the finance industry, today announced that the Lebanese Byblos Bank Group has selected its solution as the core platform to answer the Bank’s capital management requirements.

Byblos implements the Basel II Accord in all entities of the group in Lebanon, Europe (Belgium, France and UK), Sudan and Syria to ensure Basel II compliance by end year 2007. The Bank will start with the implementation of the Standardized Approach for Pillars 1 and 2 calculations with the intention to move gradually to more advanced methodologies and exploring other risk and reward performance measurements tools. At the reporting side, COREP reporting will be applied in Europe, while consolidated figures will be reported to the parent company in Lebanon.

Byblos Bank started a software evaluation project in 2006, where the project evaluation team led by Philippe Saleh, Head of Risk Management, 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.

Philippe Saleh, Head of Corporate Risk Management comments: “The Bank is strategically expanding overseas and needs to be equipped with necessary tools to support and enhance the Group risk management practices. In this respect, we have found with FinArch the solution that seemed to be the most adapted to our environment with the flexibility and ease of integration of the Financial Studio. 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. Our selection has also encompassed the good relationship of FinArch with our European subsidiary (Byblos Bank Europe – in Brussels) for the delivery of the financial reports, the integration of the COREP in the solution, and FinArch’s motivation and dedication."

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 totally integrated capital and risk management solution that delivers comprehensive support for enterprise-wide risk management, ensuring compliance with external regulations. The combination of Financial Studio’s Basel II solution with profitability calculations delivers an integrated platform for the implementation of an enterprise-wide strategy for RAROC, which provides the basis for effective economic capital budgeting and incentive compensation at the business-unit level.

Frédéric Simons, VP Regional Business Development says: “Financial Studio offers high scalability in terms of volume and functionality and thus makes the perfect solution for Byblos Bank. This contract also demonstrates FinArch’s further commitment to the Middle East region. We are very pleased with Byblos Bank’s confidence in our company, to provide them with a sophisticated risk management platform.”

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 Byblos Bank SAL

Established in Byblos-Lebanon in 1950, Byblos Bank Group is a leading universal financial institution focused on domestic and selective regional markets while striving to offer world-class service to customers, value-creation to shareholders, fulfilment to employees, and economic benefits to the communities in which it operates. Throughout more than 57 years of growth, Byblos Bank Group was able to expand with the largest best-spread network of 74 branches in Lebanon, and with a strategic presence in Europe and Africa. The Bank’s aggressive expansion plan was coupled with a sharp concern to apply best banking practices and operational excellence. In its strive for excellence, Byblos Bank oriented itself on the international banking community in general and benchmarked on the EU in particular and focused on implementing corporate Governance, Basel II requirements and other international standards.
www.byblosbank.com

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

For more details, please contact: