Integral acquires margin product

Integral, the California-based financial software and services provider, has acquired Dublin-based International Financial Systems (IFS), a provider of collateralised foreign exchange trading services.

The acquisition provides Integral with MarginMan, IFS’s flagship risk management and collateralised foreign exchange trading and over-the-counter forex options trading application. MarginMan provides a real-time margin trading service for banks that can be tailored to incorporate appropriate criteria for collateral, risk management, accounting procedures, margin requirements, profitability and customer service.

Alan Mangelsdorf, a spokesman at Integral, told RiskNews that Integral will continue to support the current form of MarginMan. In time it will be migrated to the Integral Financial Server platform where it will complement the existing products including Integral Direct - which provides applications for foreign exchange and derivatives trading.

Mangelsdorf said the timing of the migration would be dependent on feedback from existing customers.

Integral Financial Server is a Web-based platform that allows banks to build and deploy enterprise-wide financial applications. It manages transactions covering foreign exchange, money markets, derivatives, fixed income and equity-related financial products.

MarginMan is used by more than 20 financial institutions, including ABN Amro, Citigroup Private Bank, Deutsche Bank and UBS.