EGP/Financial Tradeware connectivity to enhance STP for subscribers to unique 'StatRate' tax information service

Financial Tradeware, provider of Portfolio and Fund Management Straight Through Processing (STP) solutions for investment managers, fund managers and hedge funds, announced that it has partnered with GlobeTax Data Services Inc. to provide secure and reliable access for a new tax information service offering, StatRate, via SWIFTNet FileAct, an automated messaging service that SWIFT designed to enable customers to exchange files. The service will be hosted by Financial Tradeware's sister company, Europienne de Gestion Privie (EGP).

StatRate is a corporate actions tax information data feed designed for financial services firms including; market reference data providers, custodians, brokers, asset and portfolio managers.

The agreement between Financial Tradeware and GlobeTax was signed at Sibos in Sydney and has been followed by sponsorship from eight SWIFT member institutions.  This allows GlobeTax, to provide a SWIFTNet-based accurate, real time information service to financial institutions and other companies via the EGP/Financial Tradeware communications platform.

"StatRate provides the statutory withholding tax rate plus market variance notes for over 148 markets and will be delivered automatically intra-day to subscribers," said Ross K. McGill, Director of Marketing at GlobeTax.  We're delighted to be working with Financial Tradeware on this product.  Their knowledge and experience of SWIFT will be invaluable as well as their connections across the European investment community."

Linda Bookheim, Senior Business Manager, SWIFT, said, "There is a clear need for this offering and it illustrates how new applications can be created using the SWIFTNet Data Distribution Solution.  The service will provide immediate benefits to SWIFT community subscribers to StatRate including increased STP and more accurate tax reclamation on corporate actions."

"The GlobeTax relationship allows us to expand our SWIFTNet capabilities and to realise economies of scale by using real time FileAct services in addition to our regular FIN, Crest and XML capabilities," said Graham Bright, Managing Director of Financial Tradeware. "We are pleased to support the StatRate service which will be a real enabler of STP for the securities industry. By leveraging our extensive knowledge of SWIFT, we enable a viable b.usiness case to be built for other companies who want to launch new applications using SWIFTNet as a distribution platform."

About Financial Tradeware
Financial Tradeware provides integrated solutions for small to medium sized Investment Management firms, Fund Managers and Hedge Funds, covering the full trade life cycle. It is part of the Dharma Group of companies and benefits from the joint contributions and experiences within the group of leading market traders, business analysts, financial services professionals and skilled Microsoft Certified programmers. The company has developed a suite of applications that integrate and Straight Through Process (STP) real-time trading, back office administration, accounting and compliance, and provides SWIFT connectivity services through its MA-CUG and Member Concentrator services. For more information see: www.f-tradeware.com

About GlobeTax
GlobeTax Data Services Inc. a subsidiary of Globe Tax Services Inc. provides market reference data products to the financial services and funds community.  Current products include StatRate - a market reference data feed of statutory withholding rates, and e-TaxData online - a web based tax rate research tool.  The parent company was formed in 1992 and is the pre-eminent provider of withholding tax processing services to the investment and financial services community.  The firm processes more than one million tax reclaims a year and provides tax processing services for issuers, depositaries, beneficial owners as well as outsourcing services for custodians and brokers. For more information see: www.GlobeTax.com