FinArch

Crédit Agricole selects FinArch’s comprehensive Financial Studio compliance solution

Ghent/Brussels – 27 June 2007 - Financial Architects (FinArch), international provider of a Finance Resource Planning (FRP) platform for the finance industry, today announced that Crédit Agricole, founded in 1937 and one of Belgium’s top ten retail banking groups, has selected FinArch’s Financial Studio compliance solutions to replace its current compliance solution and to answer its comprehensive reporting requirements for COREP (Basel II), FINREP (IAS/IFRS) and Belgian regulatory reporting.

To comply with the upcoming regulations, Crédit Agricole opted for FinArch’s comprehensive compliance solutions to cover multiple compliance requirements, i.e. FINREP - IAS/IFRS compliance reporting, COREP - Basel II/Pillar 3 reporting and local regulatory reporting towards the Belgian regulatory bodies.

Financial Studio has proven to meet all Crédit Agricole’s requirements. It covers all relevant IAS/IFRS requirements for both internal and external reporting, provides extended audit trail and drill down functionality and automates the workflows involved with IFRS accounts and statements preparation.

Financial Studio fully supports Basel II/Pillar 3 reporting as it relates to credit risk exposures before and after credit risk mitigation and includes a variety of standard reporting functions. Financial Studio enables automated compliance with reporting requirements from regulatory authorities, management, and head offices as it helps to ensure the accuracy and integrity of financial reports while increasing reporting efficiency, automates reports population using a flexible, user-driven allocation wizard, maintains report formatting and validation rules within the system, and includes updates whenever changes are imposed by the regulatory bodies.

Philippe Eulaerts, Director Reporting & Control at Crédit Agricole says “At the end of our 'Basel II project for the calculation of the capital adequacy ratio' we came to the legal reporting phase. It was our goal to report to the regulator the COREP standards in XBRL within the legal timeframe. In our search for a solution we contacted FinArch. They were able to respond quickly and accurately to our questions and demonstrated a mature product. Not only the completeness of the solution, but the scalability and flexibility convinced us in our choice. During the reporting phase we are able to intervene at any stage of the reporting process. This is important for accuracy during the project.  Now, we are in a recurrent business phase and we are systematically raising the degree of automation!”

Since its inception, FinArch provides customers worldwide with local accurate and timely compliance and global consistency. FinArch offers solid international experience and best-of-breed regulatory reporting. The solution eases the burden of regulatory reporting for financial institutions as it complies with the reporting requirements of central banks, monetary authorities, and other financial regulators in multiple countries, as well as with the IAS/IFRS directives and Basel II requirements. Financial Studio's compliance solution enables the banks to meet regulatory demands for stricter compliance, while gaining additional business benefits by improving reporting flows, improving return on IT investment, and turning compliance into a cost-saving exercise.

Frédéric Simons, VP Regional Development at FinArch, comments “Crédit Agricole acted very foresighted as they understood that compliance requirements have become more complex and that the 'reporting' part was only the tip of the iceberg underneath. During the proof of concept, Crédit Agricole realized that they could not longer rely on established financial reporting systems that just enables the filing of the compulsory reporting in the required format; but understood that upcoming regulatory compliance programs like Basel II and IFRS are less of a reporting issue but a data and calculation issue – and this goes far beyond the natural boundaries of traditional financial reporting systems.”

“FinArch was the obvious choice”  he continues “because above and beyond the need to tackle regulatory challenges within a single environment – from actual data collection to calculations to reporting; the bank was also looking to work with a vendor with a proven track record of speedy delivery; banking references and a stable corporate structure.”

About Crédit Agricole

The Crédit Agricole group embraces Crédit Agricole, Europabank and Keytrade Bank. The group is supported by two solid shareholders, the Belgian cooperative funds Lanbokas and Agricaisse, and the French Crédit Agricole, who both support Crédit Agricole in the realisation of its ambitions.

Crédit Agricole is a retail bank, well-established in the Belgian rural community. The bank offers comprehensive banking services to individuals, the self-employed and companies, and is market leader at the level of credit services to the agricultural industry. Crédit Agricole is currently also developing a bank-insurance activity for its retail-segment. Europabank has offices in the Belgian cities and has been specialised in the financing of individuals and self-employed persons. The internet bank Keytrade Bank is market leader in on-line brokerage in Belgium and in Luxembourg. The Crédit Agricole group remains faithful to the values it always has fostered: commitment, personality, sincerity, accessibility, conviviality, professionalism and forward-looking. Crédit Agricole is and remains the bank for the people.

www.credit-agricole.be

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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