plus 1, V.P. Credit Union Selects Acumen From Fiserv For Core ... - Street.Com

V.P. Credit Union Selects Acumen From Fiserv For Core ... - Street.Com

Posted: 17 Mar 2010 06:30 AM PDT

Fiserv Solutions of Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), announced today that V.P. Credit Union of Vancouver, British Columbia has chosen to implement its advanced Acumen™ account processing solution. V.P. Credit Union is the 14 ^th organization in Canada to select Acumen since January 2008.
Serving the employees of the Vancouver Police Board and other municipal peace officers and their immediate families since 1944, V.P. Credit Union selected Acumen to increase productivity and add functionality. V.P. is moving from an in-house core banking system to a service bureau with the implementation of Acumen.
The $120 million credit union needed a partner committed to ongoing development, innovation and integration with all future channels. Leaders for V.P. Credit Union recognized that Fiserv has the financial resources and stability of a market leader, as well as a wide range of ancillary products and services. Recent selections of Acumen by other leading credit unions in Canada also influenced the credit union's decision.
"With the installation of Acumen, our credit union will be switching from an in-house core system to the Acumen service bureau environment. Increased legislative and regulatory requirements surrounding data privacy and data operations convinced us that our needs would be more fully met by outsourcing the IT operations, and we know that Fiserv will ensure the integrity of our data operations," said Larry Hill, General Manager of V.P. Credit Union.
Designed to support the business initiatives of market-leading credit unions, Acumen (formerly known as iSpectrum™) was built from the ground up as an open platform using the latest Internet technologies. With unlimited scalability, real-time processing, global capabilities and 360-degree member views, Acumen delivers unsurpassed flexibility that credit unions cannot outgrow. Acumen is available throughout Canada via in-house, service bureau or resource management deployment models.
"The growing list of Canadian credit unions choosing Acumen from Fiserv can only enhance the progressive credit union movement across Canada," said Kevin Sparks, Fiserv segment executive for the Acumen product line. "We believe V.P. Credit Union's selection is further proof that Acumen is the choice for credit unions seeking a long-term technology partner."

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Moody's reports: Stable outlook for Lebanese banking ... - Zawya.com

Posted: 17 Mar 2010 04:50 AM PDT

17 March 2010
The credit outlook for the Lebanese banking sector is stable, reflecting the buoyant performance of the local economy in 2009, improvement in Lebanese politics and relative stability in the region, says Moody's Investors Service in its new Banking System Outlook on Lebanon. However, this outlook could weaken rapidly in the event that the recent political posturing in the wider region deteriorates into more serious acts of aggression.
Moody's stable outlook for the Lebanese banking system expresses the rating agency's view on the likely future direction of fundamental credit conditions in the industry over the next 12 to 18 months. It does not represent a projection of rating upgrades versus downgrades.
"The stability of the Lebanese banking sector reflects, to a significant extent, its remarkable success in attracting a constant large stream of foreign funding from the Lebanese diaspora and Gulf investors. Indeed, bank deposits have displayed a notable resilience to political shock throughout the country's turbulent recent history," says Stathis Kyriakides, a Moody's Assistant Vice President-Analyst, and author of the report. At the same time, given the systemic risks inherent in operating within Lebanon's volatile operating environment, Lebanese banks have traditionally maintained high liquidity, much of it with international financial institutions.
Moody's does not anticipate either a significant overhaul in Lebanese banks' liquidity policies or any short-term impediments to the stable inflow of foreign funding in the absence of a significant deterioration in regional politics.
Meanwhile, the buoyant performance of the economy in 2009 and expectations of good growth in 2010 together with a relatively stable domestic political scene (within the Lebanese context) are supportive of credit conditions in the country. That said, a key feature of the Lebanese banking system is the banks' sizeable exposure to sovereign debt, which
-- given Lebanon's B2 sovereign rating -- constitutes a highly risky investment. "Banking and government finances remain co-dependent in
Lebanon: the government relies on ongoing financing of its sizeable debt by domestic banks and the banking sector has embedded interest in preserving monetary stability. Thus, government securities will continue to comprise a large portion of banking assets in the foreseeable future, linking banks' asset quality to the performance of the government's debt rating," Mr Kyriakides explains.
Domestic and regional politics have a more pronounced impact on Lebanon's economy, sovereign debt rating and banking system than global economic conditions. In this context, Moody's cautions that, despite its current stable credit outlook for the Lebanese banking sector amid the recent relative stability, political risk remains high for as long as the country continues to be the theatre for proxy conflicts among regional and international stakeholders in the region.
The principal methodologies used in rating Lebanese banks are "Bank Financial Strength Ratings: Global Methodology", February 2007 and "Incorporation of Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined Methodology", March 2007, which can be found at www.moodys.com in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory under the Research & Ratings tab.
Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the rating process can also be found in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory on Moody's website.
The "Banking System Outlook: Lebanon" is available on www.moodys.com
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