China Bohai Bank implements new risk management system

Tianjin-based China Bohai Bank, set up in February, implemented a new risk management system aimed at facilitating a higher degree of automation in its treasury operations.

The bank implemented a risk management module - Misys Opics Risk - that will allow it to run highly flexible front-, middle- and back-office treasury functions and reduce the cost of processing complex transactions, software provider Misys said in a statement.

Misys said Bohai will be able to implement cashflow and interest rate sensitivity analysis, and risk-value analysis on foreign exchange, money market, securities and derivatives transactions. Bohai will also have expanded capabilities for monitoring market risk.

The newly established bank has aggressive plans to expand into the Yangtze River and Pearl River delta areas in China in 2007, and believes the system will complement, and even drive, its growth. “We have very dynamic plans and need robust, state-of-the-art treasury systems to help us,” says Liu Zheng Quan, the bank’s chief information officer. “They are proven in the market, and the systems link easily to [IT services provider] Vanda’s core banking solutions and Reuters dealing networks, which allows us to do business right across this range of systems while growing quickly.”

China Bohai Bank is the first national joint-stock commercial bank to be set up in China since 1996. Standard Chartered is the sole foreign strategic investor, with a 19.99% interest worth $123 million.