United Taiwan Bank adopts FinArch’s Financial Studio for Basel II

Ghent/Brussels – 10 July 2007 - Financial Architects (FinArch), international provider of a Finance Resource Planning (FRP) platform for the finance industry, today announced that United Taiwan Bank, part of the Taiwan Cooperative Bank, starts implementing FinArch’s Financial Studio solution for achieving Basel II compliance by 1 January 2008. The solution combines both a sophisticated Basel II calculation engine and complete Basel reporting (COREP) solution.

For the development of the Financial Studio Basel II compliance solutions, FinArch has leveraged its proven track record as Basel II and regulatory reporting solutions provider. Through the years, the company, listed by Gartner as a leader in the Basel II space, has acquired global experience with Basel II implementation projects across different jurisdictions and different approaches across a multitude of banking products and portfolios. The combination hereof with its many years of regulatory reporting experience has resulted in quite an innovative initiative that allows financial institutions to simplify the Basel II implementation process to a simple yet powerful 4-steps concept: (1) install the software, (2) capture the required data from the source systems, (3) start the Basel II calculation engine and (4) produce the Basel II compliance reports and test and audit the results. This package is built on a comprehensive risk data model, where all required data is pre-defined and documented, allowing quick and easy interfacing with the organisation’s internal systems.

Mr. Chang Meng-Yung, Managing Director at United Taiwan Bank comments: "Brussels being capital of the European Union has opened large business opportunities to international banks. Being established in Belgium since years we aim to enhance our position on a cost efficient manner. We intend to achieve this objective by focusing on technology upgrading.”

Frédéric Simons, VP Regional Development at FinArch, comments "The final deadline for Basel II is approaching rapidly, and many banks and investment firms yet have to find an appropriate solution for compliance by the end of the year. For smaller banks, and for subsidiaries of major international institutions, the cost and time to be spent on compliance don't seem to weigh up against the potential economies of scale. United Taiwan Bank is one of many banks that have already opted to take advantage of our pre-packaged Basel solution to fulfil regulatory requirements in the most cost effective and risk-free way and to still meet the deadlines comfortably.”

FinArch’s Basel II solution embraces much more than a basic, rapid, short term compliance solution. It enables the banks to meet regulatory demands for stricter compliance, while at the same time gaining additional business benefits by improving reporting flows, increasing return on IT investment, and turning compliance into a cost-saving exercise. It is a future-proof solution, as it guarantees automatic future compliance through the software updates on supervisory changes that we provide as part of our continuous commitment to our customers. It also supports expansion from a Basel II Standardised Approach into IRB. And as it shares a common data model with the more advanced Financial Studio capital management solutions, it ensures a smooth transition to an advanced risk package, or to a complete FRP (Finance Resource Planning) platform, in case the bank should wish to embrace one integrated solution that leverages the convergence between compliance, accounting, MIS, and risk management issues.

“There are not so many providers in the market who are able to deliver a pre-packaged Basel II calculation and reporting solution in time” Frédéric Simons continues. “Fast delivery and implementation is one of our priority standards, as our major objective is to give our customers the means and opportunity to focus on their core business, as they can rely on a well-known partner who ensures that Basel II compliance is taken care of, promptly and efficiently.”

About United Taiwan Bank

United Taiwan Bank was incorporated in Belgium in 1992. Its control shareholders are 4 Taiwanese banks, which together hold 100% of its shares i.e.: Taiwan Cooperative Bank (70%, ranked 253 by Banker Magazine), Bank of Taiwan (10%, ranked 119), Land Bank of Taiwan (10%, ranked 196) and Taiwan Business Bank (10%, ranked 362).

Its main business activities are to participate in internal syndicated loans, to invest in international securities and to act as a funding hub of Euro currency settlement for Taiwanese banks.

Besides its objective to create shareholders value, maintaining thereby safety of capital, profitability and liquidity, the bank aims at enlarge its business base, taking into account all related laws and regulations and handling operations by making use of the most actual operational methods and procedures.

To obtain this, they always can make use of the outlet competence of their shareholder banks in Taiwan.

www.utb-bank.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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