NetEconomy has opened an office in Misys Banking Systems has announced that OKO Bank in Helsinki, the Central Bank for Finland’s OP Bank Group co-operative, has chosen Misys Loan IQ to manage the bank’s agent responsibilities for its portfolio of syndicated loans.
The agreement comes after a 6 month evaluation period of available syndicated lending solutions and in-house development capabilities. It further extends a five year relationship between the two businesses, following the bank’s treasury and capital markets operation’s deployment of Misys Opics to handle its trading in derivative instruments. The new Misys Loan IQ solution is expected to go live in October this year.
“OKO Bank is already acting in the role as agent and arranger for a number of syndicated loans for our corporate customers, and it is our strategy to expand our activities in this very attractive business area”, says Markku Vehmas, senior vice president and head of Corporate Services at OKO Bank. “We selected Misys Loan IQ because its extensive functionality and workflow management capabilities can help us to ensure a high level of quality and efficiency in the management of syndicated loans, whilst helping to reduce operational risks at the same time.”
Steen Jensen, regional manager for Scandinavia and the Baltic countries at Misys, said, “We are delighted to assist OKO Bank, a valued Misys customer, in its growth in the syndicated lending market. The evaluation period has shown that automating the loan life cycle provides consistent control of events and risks – absolute necessities when entering into a relatively new product area.”