Jacksonville, Florida-based Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a provider of processing and technology solutions for financial institutions worldwide, recently announced that its advanced commercial banking system (ACBS) division has launched its fully functional Distressed Loan Trade Management and Settlement Platform on the ACBS ClearPar syndicated loan operations platform.

ACBS ClearPar is the largest automated syndicated loan operations platform, settling more than 80 percent of all Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) par loan trades. Since first launching distressed trade settlement in the first quarter of 2008, nearly 7,300 distressed trades have been entered into the system. In the initial version, buyer, seller, and agent bank were able to generate, circulate, and execute legal documents associated with distressed syndicated loan trades. With the system's new launch, additional functionality for managing distressed inventory and upstream allocations has been added, as well as providing buyer's and seller's respective legal counsel access to participate in the process.

Scott Kostyra, SVP for ACBS, said, "Previously, the industry had been dependent on disparate, nonstandardized spreadsheets to manage an inefficient and complex process of allocating inventory to trades and managing upstreams. With ClearPar, this process will be streamlined and standardized across the industry which, in turn, will considerably reduce all-in costs and settlement times associated with distressed trades."

Richard Levy, president of the ACBS division, added, "Over the last year, we have been actively engaged with our sell- and buy-side customers and legal advisors in developing the distressed management and settlement platform. With this release, ClearPar has extended its reach beyond just the settlement of trades by adding functionality which allows our customers to manage their distressed inventories more efficiently, more accurately, and in a way that will provide a standard for the industry."

Atilla Karasapan, managing director, Citibank, agrees. "We are pleased that ClearPar has been able to provide a workflow solution which facilitates the process of managing and closing distressed trades to enable the market to reduce settlement timeframes and related operational risk," Karasapan said.

In addition to Citibank, many other ClearPar customers active in distressed trading have been using the distressed platform or have agreed to commence usage with the new release.

FIS explained that adding distressed trade settlement to ClearPar's LSTA and LMA par settlement platforms further facilitates the industry goal of reducing settlement times and, consequently, operational and counterparty risk, while at the same time providing loan market participants with a single, global platform to streamline loan operations processes.

Carrie Bay | 05.14.09 www.dsnews.com