e-commerce
Wired warrants
Capping the market
On 1 August, Equity Derivatives went
live with its new site,
warrants.rabobank.com. We check out
the first phase of this valuable new
member of RI's growing online family.
K
Since September 1999, New York's Customer Access Processing System (CAPS) has
been sharpening our competitive edge and meeting customers' needs. Terry
John, project manager CAPS, gives a brief history and update.
8 What's NewS Issue 5 August/September 2000
Servicing European retail clients in
Dutch and English (German may ap-
pear in future), warrants.rabobank.com
provides detailed information on Equity
Derivatives' retail product range - war
rants, reverse convertibles, equity-linked
notes and Rabobank certificates, listed on
various European stock exchanges. Other
retail products, such as preferred shares,
will be offered as they become available.
Currently offered on the site are: online
prices, providing indicative prices for each
product; a product guide, describing each
product type; a new issues ticker, inform-
ing clients of new issues; a subscription fa-
cility, offering online registration to
Equity Derivatives' newsletter and other
cliënt information; and email contact,
allowing clients to contact the team in
I.ondon. Products can be searched for by
country, underlying, or type of product.
Clients can also view chart facilities for
the Equity Derivative products and their
attached underlyings. In the near future,
portfolio management functions will be
added, allowing clients to monitor the
performance of their investment holdings.
Warrants.rabobank.com
is linked to both the R1
(rabobank.com) and
RN (rabobank.nl) web
sites, and will be in-
cluded in several popu-
lar search engines, facil-
itating access to
non-Rabobank retail
clients. The link from
rabobank.nl allows
member banks and their clients to retrieve
Equity Derivative retail product informa
tion and benefit from the investment advi-
sory services of RBA. From a marketing
perspective, the site provides a deeper un-
derstanding of markets and clients, as it
pinpoints the products or underlyings
most frequently viewed. This market re
search will also drive the introduction of
new products. On the technical side, war
rants.com was designed to be flexible.
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Wurraui* Eqnlt) MiiLcd l'rod
scalable and built of reusable components.
Flexibility allows future business require-
ments to be met easily, while the reusable
components can be used in other RI sites
to minimize time and cost. In addition,
the site runs on any platform.
The launch of warrants.com is a result of
the cooperative efforts of teams across
many departments within the organiza-
tion. It was initiated
by Equity Derivatives
and developed by the
trading and sales IT
group, in close con-
junction with Rotter-
dam's Rabobank Be-
leggings Advies (RBA)
and Eindhoven's Cy
ber Center. Develop-
ment required the as-
sistance of the legal and compliance
departments in I.ondon and Utrecht, Lon-
don's market data team and Utrecht's in-
frastructure group. Key contributors in-
clude: Sanjeev Khurana, Gerald Brawn,
Sarah-Jane Campbell, Michelle Davies
and Joe Mannering in L.ondon, Luuk
I leuskes in Amsterdam and Firwin Zaanen
in Rotterdam.
For further information please contact
Hans Pontier on +31 20 460 4853
The new millennium got us all thinking
about our networks - our team in
New York was no exception. Due to Y2K
worries, certain applications - like the
Trade Services front-end system - were re-
tired and/or replaced. 'Customers were re-
luctant to upgrade the existing application
hut were willing to explore new innova-
tions,' John explains. 'So, we developed a
new product using new Internet technol-
ogy to meet clients' needs and gain an
edge in the market. Thus Customer Access
Processing System (CAPS) was bom - an
initiative met with an enthusiastic cliënt
response.'
To ensure smooth operation, a pilot was
run to test the web-based application. It
was a success - and six months after
CAPS' launch, about 85% of New York's
import business was serviced with CAPS.
'Using the Net's potential, we created a
tooi with the best-in-class technology - the
first comprehensive web application for
delivering trade finance applications at the
speed of e-business,' says John. 'The soft
ware was designed to meet cliënt needs - a
reflection of our ongoing commitment to
our customers.'
Here's how it works: CAPS users enter
trade finance instructions into a web-
browser application. After appropriate
customer authorization, the data is sub-
mitted to the internal trade services pro
cessing system. Using tight security fea
tures, CAPS links seamlessly into RI's
back-office systems, with the ability to
view, accept, or reject messages and docu-
ments. From their offices, clients can view
the status of the trade finance applications
submitted.
Due to its success, in April an upgraded
version was implemented, offering cus
tomers and New York's staff more bene
fits while ensuring compliance with all se
curity requirements. New features include:
'save options' for transaction retrieval at
any time; greater customer site security
control; additional functionalities for ease
of use and time efficiencies; wildcard
searches for fast record retrieval; warnings
to improve legal risk management; and re-
strictive acceptance of SWIF'T characters
to minimize time at the L/C issuance.
Looking ahead, the CAPS team's next
challenge is to create a contingency
Backup environment that would be both
economical and seamless to the operations
of our US-based customers, and to share
experiences with other RI branches as
they move forward with implementing
this application.
Please direct CAPS questions to Terry
John by email
