Bankers Trust Private Unit Is Installing Global Software
The private banking unit of Bankers Trust is in final stages of installing National Computer Systems' new, sophisticated trust software.
Plans to have the software in regular use in 1992 put this section of Bankers Trust New York Corp. in the vanguard of private banks. The new software, which does the complex accounting needed to track the value of domestic and international securities, is key to keeping up with clients' investment demands.
"The nature of the business of private banking is that we seek to be global asset managers for our clients," said Scott C. Miller, vice president and head of technology for the private bank. "As part of that, we want to provide a variety of products in U.S. dollars and other currencies."
Multicurrency Advantages
Bankers Trust's private bank is among the handful of private banking units that already have -- or are likely to be developing -- software systems to support global investment for their big institutional and other trust accounts. Clients of this type increasingly invest in foreign-issued securities.
To value these diverse portfolios, banks need software to perform multicurrency accounting. An investment fund typically has at least 10% of its money in foreign investments.
Private investors, seeking diversification in their portfolios, are following the lead of institutional funds and pouring money into foreign-issued securities.
Bankers Trust's private banking unit has one of the more aggressive investment stances. For U.S. clients, the bank currently recommends 30% of the portfolio in international securities.
Role for Artificial Intelligence
Bankers Trust will replace several trust systems with the National Computer software. It also uses artificial intelligence to model and evaluate portfolios and to make buy-and-sell decisions.
The software, called Ultrust, runs on computers from Digital Equipment Corp.
Atlanta-based National Computer Systems said it is negotiating with a second bank to purchase the software, which carries a multimillion-dollar price tag.
