Every movie watcher gets a kick out of old `80s flicks - the hair, the clothes and especially those bulky computers! Thanks to a new initiative unveiled by Bank One last week, investors may soon regard CDO technology from Banc One's competition with similar bemusement - or maybe not, but time will tell.
Compliance testing and trade executions for CDOs got a facelift from Bank One's Corporate Trust Group. The Illinois-based corporation unveiled CDOConnect, a proprietary Web site linking its CDOnet back-office software with the flexibility of the Internet, this week.
The new system provides faster compliance testing and trade execution for clients. Collateral managers are able to post proposed trades on the site and Bank One can electronically interact as a collateral agent for trade approval. Both hypothetical and actual trades garner increased processing speed. Reports and valuations will be delivered online, the firm claims.
Such capabilities "distinguish us from other indenture trustees and collateral agents," said Joe Weidenbach, managing director of Global Corporate Trust Sales and Client Services.
To create the upgrade, Bank One worked with Wall Street Analytics, a third-party information provider. The CDOnet system is able to perform a plethora of duties, including but not limited to mark-to-market valuations, multiple ration tests, portfolio reconciliation analysis, trades and payment tracking. The CDOConnect Web site provides issuers, investors, rating agencies, asset managers and market participants a full-service Web-based platform, password-protected. Furthermore, issuer and issuer-authorized users can harness the Web site for account information via AccountConnect, an application provided through CDOConnect.
"We view this move toward the servicing of CDO transactions as a natural extension of our current capabilities in structured finance," said Stuart Landucci, director of Structured Finance Sales
Bank One unveiled the new platform at the "CDOs...As Time Goes By" conference in New York, hosted by Information Management Network. According to a Bank One spokesperson, one new deal was selected at the end of conference to receive, at no charge, a special package of services from the new CDOConnect product.
Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(http://www.thomsonmedia.com)
