TCS and SmartStream launch TCS Aspire Service
SIBOS, Boston / Mumbai, September 28, 2007

Deutsche Bank first customer to benefit from new service

Banks and financial institutions can now access, without any upfront investment, a flexible and scalable reconciliation operation that is designed to drive down costs and risk, while removing operational limitations, thanks to TCS Aspire Service. TCS Aspire Service is an outsourced reconciliation service delivered by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and powered by SmartStream's Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) platform.

By using TCS Aspire Service, total cost of ownership (TCO) of the reconciliation process can be reduced by 20-40 per cent within six months. Deutsche Bank has been confirmed as the first institution to adopt the new service.

TCS Aspire Service aims to increase the straight-through processing (STP) rates of both core and client specific transactions through the use of complex algorithms within SmartStream's TLM. These algorithms compare a greater number of transaction variables to increase accuracy and reduce the number of investigations required. Thanks to improved match rates and integrated workflow, STP rates are enhanced, thus improving the overall efficiency of the reconciliation process, and driving down cost and risk.

The inherent flexibility of TCS Aspire Service allows banks and financial institutions to customise the service in line with their own strategic objectives, manage volatile transaction volumes, and provide the ability to rapidly adopt the processing of new instruments.

By standardising their reconciliation and exception management processes users can reduce operational risk and gain greater insight that will allow them to re-engineer and strengthen their business processes. Additionally, by moving to this new utility structure they are able to convert their fixed costs to variable costs. The service is launching with Deutsche Bank as its first customer. Martin Slumbers, head of investment banking operations, Deutsche Bank, explained: "As we develop our operations strategy, there are considerable benefits in being able to move our reconciliation requirements across our organisation onto a single enterprise-wide solution and benefit from the scale effects that such internal and external utilities will ultimately deliver."

NG Subramaniam, president, TCS Financial Solutions said, "TCS Aspire Service will allow financial institutions of all sizes to access best practice and expertise from the leaders in business services and reconciliations. By improving the STP efficiency of transaction reconciliation, financial institutions will be better able to deal with market volatility, without the need to expand the number of full-time equivalents (FTEs)."