Some of the new initiatives that we are currently working on and will soon be launching include a comprehensive test accelerator for trade order management, a reconciliation management solution, and a reference data management tool.

2. How is Hexaware gearing up to help its clients with the new compliance regimes in Europe like Mifid and SEPA etc.?
Ensuring compliance to increasingly stringent and ever changing regulations pose quite a challenge to financial services firms. In Europe MiFID, a major element of the European Union’s Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) will come into force very soon. Another European regulation SEPA aims to improve the efficiency of cross border payments and turn the fragmented national markets for Euro payments into a single domestic one. Both regimes will have far reaching consequences to the financial services industry. A number of our customers in Europe are already preparing for the new regulatory environment and it has become clear that IT has a crucial role to play in ensuring compliance.

Hexaware has developed a structured 4 phase approach to help ensure that our customer’s systems are up to the challenge of these new regimes. The process involves performing a fit gap analysis to asses the needs of the customer, preparing a detailed compliance roadmap, development and testing of all relevant systems, performing process, system and compliance audit and finally helping our customers put in place an IT governance structure that will allow for continued compliance and continuous improvement.

3. With the IT spend of Capital Markets growing; a lot of IT services companies are focusing on this area, how does Hexaware distinguish itself from the others?
Hexaware’s business philosophy has been to concentrate on select niche areas, which means all our investment and focus is on growing leadership and penetrating these sectors. Capital markets is one of Hexaware’s primary areas of focus and we have created an impressive portfolio of world-class solutions, products and partnerships that have helped us to compete and win against much larger vendors. Hexaware’s niche market strategy has been a major differentiating factor over the years.

Hexaware also has an enviable track record in building, operating and delivering solutions from very large offshore development centers. Our outsourcing models are proven business models for customers who want to leverage delivery capabilities and labor arbitrage across the globe. However Hexaware’s greatest strength is its highly skilled and committed work force. We have a comprehensive resource pool specializing in capital markets comprising of technical and domain experts including functional consultants and business analysts with many years of industry experience. It is this right blend of deep domain expertise coupled with our technical excellence that has allowed Hexaware to stand out in a cluttered market space.

4. What are the major markets that you are focusing on and what are the opportunities that you foresee in those markets?
Our presence is global and we work with some of the largest financial organizations in North America, Europe and Asia. We have over 25 offices all over the world. Our cost effective global delivery model enables us to provide services across the world.

Traditionally, however, North America has been our largest market accounting for over 70% of total business. Several of America’s leading asset management firms are amongst our clients. It will continue to be a critical market for us and we are making investments including the setting up of a near shore development center in Mexico to better service our North American financial services clients.

Hexaware, also, views Europe as a highly strategic market and we expect our revenues from Europe to grow much larger in the future. We already have a strong presence in Germany and the UK and are expanding in the rest of Northern and Western Europe. The new compliance regimes coming into place definitely present a great opportunity for us and we have recently launched a joint venture called ‘Risktech’ in the UK focusing exclusively on enterprise risk management solutions.

We also have a strong presence in APAC and we are increasing our investments towards R&D and marketing for this region. We expect the rate of technology adaptation among financial services firms here to increase, presenting us with a great opportunity.

5. With the growing complexity of financial products, markets and systems, how are Hexaware’s solutions and consultants keeping pace?
The landscape is growing increasingly complex with the emergence of multi asset and cross asset trading, rise of algorithmic trading, need for best execution management and transaction cost analytics along with increasingly stringent compliance requirements. This has sophisticated the needs of Hexaware’s financial services clients and we are meeting the challenge by developing newer, up-to-date solutions and services to better service our clients.

Hexaware has several Centers of Excellence (COEs) focusing specifically on sub verticals of capital markets such as derivatives and asset management. These COEs spearhead our innovations in this area by focusing their efforts on R&D, talent creation, training, knowledge acquisition and retention and by developing and updating our frameworks, products and solutions in line with emerging industry needs and also by leveraging our vast customer experience.

We believe firmly that innovation is essential for growth and it is our structured COE based approach that has allowed us to consistently service the complex needs of our customers.

6. Can you tell us more about your services in the Derivatives area?
Hexaware's Derivative Practice has exclusive solutions catering to single as well as multi-asset class derivatives. Our solution domain ranges from Pre-trade to Post-Trade covering front office, middle office and back office operations. We aim at effectively improving Order Routing Systems, providing high-speed connectivity, managing derivatives data migration and reconciliation, order management systems testing and managing operational risks. Our Derivatives Competency Unit, comprising of focused training and development unit, latest infrastructure and a robust competency unit, aims in providing result-oriented and cost based solutions. Hexaware has developed a resource pool for various leading third party products to provide derivatives solutions. We also provide advisory, upgradation, re-engineering, Support & maintenance and IT governance services to homegrown derivatives solutions.