Specialist treasury systems provider CCK Financial Solutions Ltd, headquartered in Perth, has signed up two major banks in the Philippines to subscribe to its Guava Suite treasury management system.
Specialist treasury systems provider CCK Financial Solutions Ltd, headquartered in Perth, has signed up two major banks in the Philippines to subscribe to its Guava Suite treasury management system.
Union Bank, the Philippines' leading treasury services provider, and Security Bank Corporation, a private bank recognised for its treasury expertise, have signed with CCK for its latest treasury software package.
CCK has expanded into the Philippines as part of an aggressive push into Asia, complementing markets already established in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Middle East.
Next year, the company plans to export its treasury services into the more mature European markets.
Established in 1981 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1999, CCK develops, implements and supports finance trading, risk management and back office solutions, with a focus on the international treasury market.
Released in 2002, Guava Suite is a third-generation treasury software package that covers the operations, accounting and reporting requirements of a treasury, within a single system.
Guava Suite, among other functions, analyses a financial institution's cash flow, can calculate foreign currency trade risks, analyses interest rate and exchange rate scenarios, and captures hypothetical deals or 'what if' situations.
According to CCK managing director Joseph Wong, Guava Suite offers features particularly useful to banks, on a global scale.
"The system is used mainly by banks to manage its treasury operations and commercial operations and basically Guava looks after the handling of the money," Mr Wong told WA Business News.
Mr Wong said the Philippines was an attractive market because it was a relatively new market for CCK to penetrate.
"There's an opportunity at the moment primarily because they had a system there that dominated the market, but it's due for an upgrade," he said.
"But the upgrade for the Mysis Opics system, although it was a big selling treasury system for a billion dollar company, takes six months to upgrade and costs lots and lots of money, so we've seen a special opportunity to advance with Security Bank and Union Bank."
However, Mr Wong said Guava Suite had a leading edge because it future proofed financial institutions.
"Guava's functionality will improve the banks' ability to service their customers, as well as streamline their internal processes through automation," he said.
"Guava's unique feature of allowing customisation by the bank, while automatically maintaining an easy upgrade path with regular new releases of the software, future-proofs the bank."
Union Bank president and chief operating officer, Victor Valdepenas, said Guava Suite would help the bank extend its reach in the trading of derivatives and structured products.
"[Union Bank] has selected Guava as the platform not only to expand into those new areas, but also to manage risk appropriately," he said.
Security Bank senior vice-president and treasurer, Rafael Algarra, said for the bank to sustain its leading position in the treasury market, it had to be "ahead on product innovations", and Guava Suite was at the forefront.
CCK's most recent financial accounts, for the half-year to December 2007, show revenue of $1.4 million and a net loss of $40,000. It said the loss was due to the cost of launching Guava in new markets
