News

Wealthy giving Switzerland a miss to head for Dubai

So much for the famous Swiss bank account – Europe’s major moneymen are ditching their traditional alpine safe haven to put their money in Dubai.

That’s according to Swiss banking ‘trend spotter’ Jean-Luc Freymond, who says a combination of tougher Swiss banking laws and the simplicity of operating in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is seeing some big-hitters choose to move their money from snow to sand.

“The current offering of Swiss banks is not what people are looking for and there is a growing and maturing private business,” Freymond, CEO of Swiss financial software firm SAGE Group SA, told 7DAYS.

Switzerland, the world’s largest offshore financial centre, which holds more than $2 trillion worth of global wealth, has always been considered perfect for wealthy clients who value discretion.

However, in 2009, under considerable pressure from tax-paying nations, the country agreed to accept concessions on bank secrecy – saying it would only accept ‘declared assets’ into Swiss accounts. And according to Freymond, those wanting to legally avoid the taxman are instead choosing to move their money to Dubai.

“Contrary to what a lot of (Swiss) banks are saying officially, in reality they are finding different places for clients,” the SAGE Group SA boss said.

“One of the most interesting things is that money is now moving from traditional places like Switzerland to the Middle East – and especially Dubai.”

In a trend that is “new, less than a year old”, Freymond says “billions” of dollars that would have previously been headed for Switzerland – which is also famous for its clocks – is now safely stored in accounts in the UAE.

“It’s primarily European clients of countries who are signing (declared-asset) agreements with Switzerland. People who have sold their companies, or who are in industry, or also people who are from the entertainment or sports world,” he said.

Dubai may well soon be welcoming business from established Asian hubs too, according to Freymond.

“People fear Singapore’s going to be next on the (declared-asset) list because it has a very similar profile to Switzerland,” he said. And it’s not just money that’s moving from Switzerland to Dubai, according to the SAGE Group SA boss.

“Within the financial industry bankers – highly trained bankers – are moving from Switzerland to Dubai,” he said.

*This article was written by Duncan Hare of 7Days on 28th May 2012 in Abu Dhabi/Dubai (UAE).

SAGE Group SA leads the way in asset management for UAE banks

Pioneering financial software company, SAGE Group SA, launched version 2.0 of the company’s flagship product, Prospero, during this year’s MEFTEC exhibition in Dubai, unveiling an enhanced system that allows banks to manage their clients’ accounts across several platforms all from one system. Following the success of Prospero, V2.0 is proving to be one of the most specialized tools in the Middle East region particularly as local banks are becoming more attractive to European clients looking to provide an alternative to a weakening banking secrecy policy at home.

With the growing pressure on European banks, especially Swiss banks, to adopt more transparent policies and to ask their clients to declare their assets; these financial institutions are increasingly turning to shifting their clients’ assets to the Middle East region. “UAE banks are becoming the new tax haven for shifting Swiss clients. Europe-based account holders are moving their assets into the region where regulation and tax laws are less regulated and monitored,” states Fernand Rasetti, COO of SAGE Group SA.

The new strength of the financial sector in the UAE can also be explained by the fact that European banks in general and Swiss banks in particular are opening subsidiary banks in Dubai that offer management services. This means that the European client can choose its local custody bank and the European and/or Swiss bank can, in a relatively simple way, keep these clients while avoiding the problem that arises with Swiss banking secrecy.  Technically, such a solution is much simpler than creating a new bank. “As a result of this trend in the regional marketplace, European financial institutions need systems that provide them with a consolidated view of their clients’ assets.  With an information platform such as Prospero, it is also possible for the subsidiaries to be operational very quickly as Prospero provides electronic interfaces with custodian banks that allow the consolidation of portfolios,” Fernand added.

SAGE Group SA’s expertise and commitment to the continuing development of cutting-edge banking and asset management applications has ensured that it remains ahead by spotting trends in the banking sector. Recent examples of a growing trend include ADCB buying RBS’s assets in the UAE and HSBC UAE’s move to acquire Lloyds’ UAE assets. In these scenarios, the acquiring entity should be equipped with a flexible software solution that allows it to create the products and services of the acquired entity that it presently does not offer. Fernand commented, “Prospero is one of the few solutions that do not require coding to adapt the business processes of a newly absorbed entity and thus allow users to easily and quickly adjust to and create new products and services.”

Prospero is a suite of solutions precisely fitted to the needs of specific segments of the financial services industry and covers all aspects of financial operations: Wealth Management, Asset Management, Fund Administration, Trading, Independent Asset Managers/Family Office, and Portfolio Optimization. Even with today’s standardized and regulated financial environment, each bank financial institution remains different. Prospero’s unique flexibility ensures that it covers exact needs – from medium to large firms, from simple to complex financial products and activities.

Prospero is currently used by prominent financial institutions in Switzerland, Europe, and Asia Pacific as they rely on Prospero to expand their market share in Wealth Management.

For more information on this news, please contact SAGE at +971 4 428 13 85 (Dubai).

Magic Announces the Release of its Mobile Offering for the Development of Business Applications

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ: MGIC), a global provider of mobile and cloud-enabled application and business integration platforms, announced today the availability of native iOS and Android clients for its mobile enterprise application platform, in addition to its existing clients for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

Magic’s productive mobile enterprise application platform enables the development of complex, highly interactive business solutions for all major mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile, from a single development effort on both the client and server sides. Mobile applications can be deployed as native apps, hybrid (native and HTML5), or Web browser applications.

Commenting on the release, Guy Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer of Magic Software Enterprises, said: “The fast-growing enterprise mobility market is a major opportunity for Magic and the enterprise software industry as a whole. Magic’s forward-looking approach and smart technology enable us to offer a comprehensive, rich user-experience solution, now also for the popular iOS and Android mobile platforms. Magic’s platform facilitates rapid and cost-effective back-end integration—typically the most costly and time-consuming aspect of mobile enterprise application development—by providing optimized, certified connectors to leading enterprise systems, such as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and many more.”

Numerous enterprises and ISVs around the world are already successfully using Magic’s new mobile offering in a number of pre-launch projects, developing applications that will run natively on Android and iOS devices. One such customer is SAGE in Switzerland, a leading vendor of integrated and innovative financial software, who sought the right technology to mobilize its Prospero suite of financial solutions for portfolio managers, brokers, traders, and other financial professionals.

Jean-Luc Freymond, CEO of SAGE Group SA, said: “Magic’s mobile solution gives us the versatility we need for fast and easy development and multi-platform deployment. Implementing Magic’s technology enables us to significantly enhance our product offering and provide greater value to our customers, who require fast, reliable, and secure mobile access to their financial systems.”

Another customer using Magic’s mobile technology is California-based Dove Tree Canyon Software, Inc., a leading vendor of automated warehouse material handling systems. Bill Woo, President of Dove Tree Canyon Software stated: “Having used Magic’s technology to successfully deploy an application on Windows Mobile devices, Magic’s mobile application platform was the obvious best choice for us in our decision to support iOS and Android tablets. The flexibility of Magic’s uniPaaS application platform enables Dove Tree to deliver fully customized solutions to our end user with maximum speed and minimum resources.”

Magic will co-host a webinar on June 19 with Jean-Luc Freymond, CEO of SAGE Group SA, and Jeffrey Hammond, Principal Analyst at Forrester, to present Real-life Solutions for Enterprise Mobility.

About Magic Software Enterprises
Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ: MGIC) is a global provider of mobile and cloud-enabled application and business integration platforms.

For more information, visit www.magicsoftware.com

About SAGE / Prospero
SAGE Group SA, founded in 1986, is headquartered in Switzerland with branches in Dubai and Singapore. It is a privately held software company that develops financial applications called Prospero. Prospero is a suite of solutions precisely fitted to the needs of specific segments of the financial services industry and covers all aspects of financial operations: Wealth Management, Asset Management, Fund Administration, Trading, Independent Asset Managers/Family Office, and Portfolio Optimization. These applications help global financial organizations focus on their core competencies–and thereby improve their productivity.

For more information, visit www.finartis.com.

Press Contacts:
Tania Amar, VP Global Marketing
Magic Software Enterprises
tania@magicsoftware.com

Tarek Hamdan, Chief Marketing Officer
SAGE Group SA
info@finartis.com

UAE banks are becoming the new tax haven

With the growing pressure on European banks, especially Swiss banks, to adopt more transparent policies and to ask their clients to declare their assets; the region, particularly Dubai, is becoming more attractive to clients looking to provide an alternative to a weakening banking secrecy policy at home.

“UAE banks are becoming the new tax haven for shifting Swiss clients. Europe-based account holders are moving their assets into the region where regulation and tax laws are less regulated and monitored,” said Fernand Rasetti, COO of SAGE Group SA, present at this year’s MEFTEC on the 24th and 25th of April. SAGE Group SA is a Swiss company, founded in 1986, that has established itself amongst the pioneers in financial software with offices in Dubai and Singapore.

SAGE Group SA’s expertise and commitment to the continuing development of cutting-edge banking and asset management applications has ensured that it remains ahead by spotting trends in the banking sector. Recent examples of a growing trend include ADCB buying RBS’s assets in the UAE and HSBC UAE’s move to acquire Lloyds’ UAE assets. In these scenarios, the acquiring entity should be equipped with a flexible software solution that allows it to create the products and services of the acquired entity that it presently does not offer. “Prospero is one of the few solutions that do not require coding to adapt the business processes of a newly absorbed entity and thus allow users to easily and quickly adjust to and create new products and services.

The new strength of the financial sector in the UAE can also be explained by the fact that European banks in general and swiss banks in particular are opening subsidiary banks in Dubai that offer management services. This means that the European client can choose its local custody bank and the European and / swiss bank can, in a relatively simple way, keep these clients while avoiding the problem that arises with Swiss banking secrecy.  Technically, such a solution is much simpler than creating a new bank. “As a result of this trend in the regional marketplace, European financial institutions need systems that provide them with a consolidated view of their clients’ assets.  With an information platform such as Prospero, it is also possible for the subsidiaries to be operational very quickly as Prospero provides electronic interfaces with custodian banks that allow the consolidation of portfolios,” Fernand added.

Prospero is a suite of solutions precisely fitted to the needs of specific segments of the financial services industry and covers all aspects of financial operations: Wealth Management, Asset Management, Fund Administration, Trading, Family Office, and Portfolio Optimization. Even with today’s standardized and regulated financial environment; each bank, each financial institution remains different; Prospero’s unique flexibility ensures that it covers exact needs – from medium to large firms, from simple to complex financial products and activities.

Prospero is currently used by prominent financial institutions in Switzerland, Europe, and Asia Pacific as they rely on Prospero to expand their market share in Wealth Management.

Following its success, SAGE Group SA launched v2.0 of its Prospero suite of solutions during MEFTEC that was held at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre on the 25th and 26th of April.

Prospero v2.0 provides clients with more productivity, more scalability, higher ease of use, and less total cost of ownership.

Thomson Reuters Announces Three New Deals around DataScope Select

DataScope Select will provide customers of Quantifi Risk, Quantifi’s award-winning trading and risk management system for OTC products, with a broader universe of intra-day and end-of-day reference data, market and evaluated pricing for an increasingly holistic view into the associated risks of their investment activity and better ability to mitigate against portfolio risk. Quantifi clients now have the ability to access data on demand, tailoring their usage to meet their needs. This enables clients to streamline operations and costs while providing the necessary transparency around their data usage both in volume and asset class.

SAGE Group SA is a global financial technology company providing innovative solutions for Wealth Management, Asset Management, Fund Administration, Trading, Family Office, and Portfolio Optimization. Ability to access Thomson Reuters pricing and reference data will allow users of Prospero-IAM SaaS, SAGE Group SA’s asset management platform, to improve risk management and standardize the management of their clients’ multi-deposit assets.

Gerry Buggy, Managing Director, Enterprise Content at Thomson Reuters, said: “We are happy to have Fund Count, Quantifi and SAGE Group SA join our growing list clients on Thomson Reuters DataScope Select. All of these deals are testament to our continued efforts to provide customers with the greatest choice of premium, high quality data content in the industry today, delivered seamlessly through one solution that provides them with the necessary tools to ensure effective decision making, accounting and reporting to their clients, investors and regulatory bodies.” 

Thomson Reuters DataScope Select is the strategic data delivery platform for non-streaming content globally providing a single source and single retrieval method for your data needs. The platform is a full cross-asset offering with intelligently linked data for all Thomson Reuters DataScope content including Reference Data, Corporate Actions, Legal Entity Data, end-of-day/intra-day pricing and Evaluation Pricing Services.

SAGE to launch v2.0 of its financial technology solution, Prospero, at MEFTEC 2012

SAGE Successful with SaaS-Based Platform for IAMs

Since 2011, SAGE Group SA has been successful with its new financial software for Family Offices and Independent Asset Managers which is available through a SaaS model for licenses.

Prospero, SAGE’ technological suite of solutions for the Financial Services Industry, is now offered via SaaS on pay-per-use basis by the Swiss firm; providing an affordable and quick-to-install solution for both start-ups and specialized financial institutions.

The approach has been successful as SAGE signed mid-2011 its first client, on this technology and licensing model, in just a month after this model was first offered. SAGE then signed 2 more clients before the end of 2011 for the same platform. This platform is available for clients in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The solution is hosted in a secure server in Switzerland and access is provided to users via VPN and to clients via the Web.

“Today, IT virtualization is gaining traction in the Independent Asset Management sector as more managers recognize the cost efficiencies of operating at lesser volumes in this way,” said Tarek Hamdan, Chief Marketing Officer of SAGE Group SA. “The infrastructure investment being made by SAGE around SaaS technology combines the strength of SAGE’ position as a global market player in providing financial solutions, and the latest technological and security innovations.”

Prospero SaaS offering empowers banks and financial institutions to move their operations to a suitable pricing model that is based on their usage and/or number of trades. Firms can avoid allocating funds on hardware and also save the efforts of their internal IT department on maintenance and support. Prospero’s new package allows them to spend only what they require based on their firm’s activity, size of clientele, and AUM.

For more information on this news, please contact SAGE at +41 21 653 64 01 (Switzerland).

18 Swiss Banks Find a Haven in Dubai

SAGE discussed Asian threats on swiss private banks