For most capital markets firms, risk and regulation

are basic elements of the natural business environ-

ment. Pricing and repackaging risk are, after all, the
industrys core competencies, and some degree of
regulation has always been the tradeoff for political
and economic stability. Managing risks and assur-
ing compliance are essential operating functions,
and the IT solutions that support them are impor-
tant components of enterprise infrastructure.
Today, capital markets firms face increasing
risk management and compliance demands. Its
not news that a few corporate scandals and global
instabilities have brought new public scrutiny
and regulatory intervention, or that recession
and globalization have roiled markets, multiplied
business risks and depressed earnings. Financial
service leaders are responding to these challenges
with a spirit of continuous innovation toward
their business process and the supporting technol-
ogy. They are modernizing their IT infrastructure,
implementing business process best practices, and
deploying new solutions that utilize and build
upon these efficiencies. What some managers see
as routine technology upgrades, visionary execu-
tives understand as investments in new revenue
and growth opportunities.
Todays Risk and Compliance Needs
Lead to Innovative Technology Solutions
To understand how infrastructure modernization fuels
corporate growth, one must first understand the separate
but converging technology requirements for risk and
compliance management.
Risk management Transaction volume and processing
requirements have gone through the roof as derivatives
and other exotic instruments have come to dominate
many trading streams and portfolios. Providing cost-
effective compute power to model and simulate the
performance of these instruments is a critical need. In
addition, providing real-time risk management support
for traders and asset managers requires a single portfolio
view across many different systems and channels. This,
in turn, demands improved data integration and man-
agement capabilities and secure on-the-go access to
real-time information.
Compliance Complexities here arise from the myriad
new regulations brought by national governments and
international bodies, including Sarbanes-Oxley, the U.S.
Patriot Act, Basel II and the many new anti-money laun-
dering (AML) laws and regulations. Assuring compliance
and creating robust archives requires the ability to track,
record and respond to transactions across the entire
enterprisea massive integration and processing task.
Risk Management and Compliance
Solutions Catalyze New Business Growth
Defensive technology requirements provide the platform
for competitive advantage and revenue expansion
By Mark Stahl
Global Financial Services Industry Solution
Manager, Intel Corporation
Special Advertising Section
A Modernized Infrastructure Enables Solutions
Todays risk and compliance needs present three key
technology requirements:
Global transaction and asset data integration for a
unified real-time view of enterprise positions and
trading activity. Today, most of this data is scattered
and isolated in many separate backend systems and
independent applications
Greater computing power for real-time risk model-
ing, simulation, and trade product pricing
Global data aggregation and reporting solutions to
enable real-time, holistic data views and to push cur-
rent, actionable information and alerts to front-line
decision makers
Many financial service companies are already modern-
izing their infrastructure to enable these capabilities,
implementing service-oriented architectures for enter-
prise integration, distributed compute Grids for intensive
real-time analysis, or fleets of mobile, wireless notebooks,
tablets and handheld devices for instant awareness and
faster responses. The efficiencies that result slash cycle
times and process steps, boost productivity and sharpen
decision-making with real-time precision data.
The companies that will lead the industry going for-
ward understand that re-architecting their infrastructure
to be more robust, flexible and scalable offers some
powerful competitive advantages.
A Vision for Business Transformation
While risk management and compliance requirements
are top of mind, smart managers are keeping a close
eye on their competitiveness within a changing busi-
ness environment. After the worldwide consolidation
and convergence of recent years, an improving global
economy presents a different set of challengescreat-
ing new business and revenue growth. The pressure
is on to develop new products, roll out new services,
retain existing customers, attract new ones and identify
new cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Today, leading
firms are continually evolving both their processes and
their infrastructure to operate more efficiently, under-
stand their businesses more clearly, see new opportuni-
ties sooner and respond more swiftly to deliver real
top-line results.
The robust, open standards-based infrastructure needed
to energize this transformation:
Uses a service-oriented architecture to link customer
service channels and enterprise applications, and to
manage the resulting data flows with robust security
Supports a consolidated enterprise data warehouse
that enables a unified, near real-time view of global
positions and events
Enables distributed data processing to extend the
capacity of high-performance computing Grids and
clusters to servers, desktops, laptops and handhelds
Provides real-time access to data through wireless
networks and high-performance mobile laptop and
handheld devices.
This distributed solution infrastructure provides a wide
range of business benefits, in risk and compliance man-
agement applications and beyond. It scales and adapts
cost-effectively to new requirements and regulatory
demands. It powers real-time decision support, reduces
upgrade expense, and supports modular expansion for
new business opportunities.
As the leading practitioner of open standards-based
technology innovation, Intel has worked with the
financial services industry and with technology leaders
to develop innovative solutions to critical industry busi-
ness needs. Solutions based on Intel-powered servers,
desktops, laptops and handhelds deliver reliable, robust
performance and vendor freedom of choice.
Put Innovative Risk Management and
Compliance Solutions to Work Today
Risk management and compliance will always be part
of the financial markets landscape. How firms address
those needs today will impact their competitiveness far
into the future. Although the need for infrastructure
reinvestment is obvious and immediate, the best uses
for new capital are sometimes less clear. The challenge
for C-level management is to see this juncture for what
it isan opportunity for structural change that will
make those who choose wisely dramatically more effi-
cient, responsive, competitive and profitable.
For More Information
To learn more about how Intel is working to enable
innovative solutions in financial services, contact your
Intel sales representative, or visit
www.intel.com/go/finance.
Mark Stahl manages Intel Corporations global
marketing and business development function for the
Financial Services Industryincluding the banking,
capital markets, and insurance segments. Mark has over
twenty years experience in technology for the financial
services industry. His background prior to joining Intel
Corporation is in Enterprise Sales to Fortune 100
companies.
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of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and
other countries.
Copyright 2004. Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
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