Abbey Financial Markets appointed SmartStream as its vendor of choice for reconciliations in November 2004 when the company purchased TLM Reconciliations. The firm’s aim was to improve operational control and efficiency across AFM and in the longer term use TLM as a single enterprise-wide platform for reconciliations.

AFM undertook a phased roll-out, migrating key reconciliations onto TLM – ensuring ROI at each stage of the implementation. Harnessing TLM Reconciliations’ unique Generic matching capability, AFM has successfully deployed the solution to automate and control:
• Inter-systems trade reconciliations
• Custody reconciliations
• Cash reconciliations
• Futures clearing broker reconciliations

Steve Jennett, Head of Operations for AFM, said “The business owners of reconciliations within Abbey Financial Markets are already reaping the benefits of the new system in terms of reduced manual processing time, as well as completeness and consistency of the output.”

“The ROI from the project has been significant, as an example, when Cash reconciliations went Live on TLM, STP match rates immediately doubled.” Jennett explains further productivity benefits are anticipated, “As the business users learn from their experiences we anticipate they will be able to hone TLM’s flexible rules driven matching engine and benefit from even greater STP rates.”

The successful project was implemented by a blended team of AFM employees and SmartStream consultants. Commenting on the achievements of the project team, Richard Cummings, UK Sales Director, SmartStream, stated, “SmartStream has enjoyed a long relationship with Abbey and we are delighted to see the firm gaining significant benefits from TLM Reconciliations.”