Customer Profile

Our client is one of the largest global investment banks. Already a leader in the European mortgage business, they were looking to grow their position in the US mortgage market and were looking to triple their stateside position over the coming year.

Business Situation

In order to confidently grow its US mortgage business, the bank needed to be able to precisely quantify the risk to which it is exposed. Mortgage bond and derivatives traders required the ability to analyze hypothetical trades to determine risk exposure on a given instrument across a multiplicity of risk parameters, and the calculations utilized had to produce consistent, repeatable and auditable results. In addition, research and sales users required the ability to generate reports summarizing their research and analysis, for use in their sales efforts.

Solution Description

Lab49 was engaged to replace the legacy solution developed internally by the bank. We found that the existing system suffered from architectural and User Interface problems that made it difficult to use as well as to maintain and enhance, and proposed a new software solution built on the Microsoft .NET platform.

The application is written in C#/WindowsForms, and integrates via XML/SOAP with the bank’s existing data sources and calculation engines. Utilizing a metadata-driven architecture in which both UI elements and the underlying data model are described in a common and coherent fashion, the Lab49 solution is significantly easier to maintain and enhance.

In addition, Lab49 utilized UI design experts to ensure that the new application’s custom splashscreens, icons and wizards achieved a dramatic increase in usability. The resulting Analysis Environment provides traders with a consistent, easy-to-use solution to their analysis needs.

Benefits

• Risk quantification information is widely available, supporting the confident expansion of the bank’s domestic mortgage business and consequent increased profitability
• New user-exposed functionality can be built much more quickly, allowing the bank to respond to trader needs with new features