IRESS Launches Fully Integrated Wealth Management Suite in Canada

Integrated web-based platform addresses major challenges faced by the Canadian wealth management community

TORONTO, Sept. 19, 2012 /CNW/ - IRESS today announced the release of its powerful Private Wealth Management (PWM) software platform in Canada, building on its long-standing presence as a leading supplier of market data and equity trading solutions. The launch into North America further extends the global coverage of the solution, already widely deployed in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Asia and the United Kingdom.

"As already demonstrated in other regions, IRESS Private Wealth Management has proven to effectively meet the key challenges facing today's wealth management professionals," said Michael Harrison, VP of Sales for IRESS Canada.  "The solution readily adapts to evolving regulatory changes, drives cost reduction through improved efficiencies and broadens revenue generation through enhanced relationship tools.  As a mature, highly customizable platform, we believe this solution will create tremendous opportunities for our clients."

Offering '360 degree' functionality, financial and investment advisors can utilize IRESS PWM to support the following objectives:

Manage client contacts, relationships and campaigns:  The IRESS PWM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module enables advisors to track and classify clients and prospects, establish and track sales tasks, and set up and maintain sales campaigns and social media.

Monitor Canadian and international markets in real time:  Utilizing IRESS' ultra-low latency Market Data infrastructure, the IRESS PWM advisors to assess market sentiment and volatility, monitor price and liquidity movement and perform market analytics.  Integrated, innovative tools such as Market Map provide rapid market activity visualization and tracking across Canadian and International market places.

Model, compare and contrast client portfolios:  To assist clients in making investment decisions balancing risk and return, advisors can model, compare and contrast portfolios against a range of flexible adjusted and manually set benchmarks.  Advisors can help clients rapidly assess the impact of specific investment choices, and develop a more sophisticated view of investing.

Online client engagement:  The secure client portal allows advisors to easily share client personal, portfolio, performance and investment information.  The portal can facilitate and extend the advisor's relationship with the client by providing an interactive conduit for the exchange of a broad range of relevant information.

Generate single and bulk orders for execution:  Advisors can "close the loop" between portfolio decisions and holdings by creating single and bulk order execution.  Fills can be automatically allocated directly back to portfolios.

Easily configure compliance rules and alerts:  IRESS PWM can be easily configured for regional and jurisdictional specific compliance frameworks, and provides pre-trade and post-trade compliance checks ensuring portfolios adhere to business policies and investment mandates.

"We're immensely proud to be introducing IRESS Private Wealth Management to the Canadian market," said Jim Davies, President and CEO of IRESS Canada.  "In terms of scale and functional integration, it sets a new standard for financial and investment advisor platforms in Canada.  We believe that this is an opportune time to bring this solution to Canada as firms adapt to new regulatory frameworks.  Advisors and their clients can now interact to develop the right investment strategies with a completely new level of ease, transparency and confidence."

The announcement of IRESS PWM follows several recent announcements by IRESS about the release of a new institutional trading platform, a new FX handling module and support for multi-leg options and futures strategies.

For a demonstration of the IRESS Private Wealth Management, please contact [email protected] or call 416-907-9218.

SOURCE: IRESS Canada Holdings Ltd.