Banks' Regulatory Spend Spurs Rule Financial's Growth

LONDON, September 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

IT consultancy boosts revenues by 15%, with growth in the UK, US and Canadian investment banking markets, as well as in nearshore development centres in Poland and Spain.

Rule Financial, an independent provider of business consultancy, IT consultancy and IT services to the global investment banking community, today announces its growth in revenues of 15 per cent year-on-year and the recruitment of more banking domain specialists and technical experts. In doing so it has grown its presence within nine of the top ten global investment banks.

Despite many economists doubting banks' IT spend this year (e.g. Celent predicted growth of just 2.8% in 2012), Rule Financial is continuing to expand globally. Rule Financial has found that regulatory pressure is a key driver for projects that it is winning in capital markets; with the Dodd-Frank regulation in the US and EMIR in Europe requiring banks to completely overhaul OTC derivatives clearing systems.

H1 2012 has also witnessed an increase in the nearshoring of client IT development and support services to Poland, with Rule Financial's presence in Łódź increasing in headcount to 178 and planned to rise to 200 by the end of the year. Łódź boasts a highly skilled, multi-lingual workforce, fresh from the many local technical universities; further evidenced by the likes of Citi and BNY Mellon who have also recently opened centres in the country.

Rule Financial differentiates itself on its domain expertise and has bolstered this capability in the London headquarters with a number of key hires joining the OTC clearing and collateral management team. These include James Tomkinson and Jonathan Philp, specialists in OTC clearing and collateral management. Marina Potok also joined the team from UBS in August, as a specialist in OTC, structured and securitised products. Rule Financial has also launched a new application managed services (AMS) practice, spearheaded by Pauline Parker, who supports global clients' vendor and proprietary systems. In addition, the North American arm of Rule Financial continues to grow, and has recently been enhanced by the appointment of John Free from Sapient, as CTO for North America.

Chris Potts, CEO, Rule Financial, said: "The wave of regulation which was triggered by the 2008 financial collapse is now being felt by the world's financial institutions, which is in turn driving IT strategies. Dodd-Frank, EMIR and Basel III are just a few of the regulations for which firms are turning to Rule Financial for guidance and consultancy. Our domain experts have incredible knowledge of the practical implications of these regulations, which is reflected in the increase in consultancy we are undertaking and the increase in our revenues. Our early move to open a development centre in Poland is not only supporting, but is also helping to drive our growth. We fully intend to use our success in the first part of the year as the platform from which we continue to drive for the recruitment of quality staff and continued financial success."

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About Rule Financial

Rule Financial is a leading independent provider of business and IT services, employing over 450 people in the UK, the USA, Spain and Poland. Our specialists work alongside their counterparts at the world's leading investment banks, hedge funds and financial institutions, helping to lower costs, improve productivity and extract the maximum value from IT investments.

We cover all aspects of advisory, execution and support services. Our domain specialisms include: Securities Finance, Prime Services, Risk Management, Trading, Legal & Compliance and Operations. Our delivery specialisms include: advisory and execution services in system development, user-centric design, software development, integration, testing, on-going support and IT outsourcing.

We offer our clients end-to-end solutions that solve their complex business and IT issues. Our specialists have a deep understanding of the increasing regulatory pressures faced by financial institutions and a number of our recent engagements have included strategic consultancy around OTC derivatives regulation and the implications of central clearing on integrated systems and collateral management.

For more information about Rule Financial please contact:

Stuart Cooper
email: rule@hotwirepr.com 
tel: +44-(0)20-7608-4695

web: http://www.rulefinancial.com