Bank Loan Report, Vol. 23, No. 41 October 27, 2008

Banks Introduce STORM Loan Marketplace Application Suite

Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley have launched STORM Loan Marketplace, an online application service platform for buy- and sell-side institutions. The application is designed to transfer across secure networks data relating to new primary issues, secondary settlements, position reconciliation, credit documentation and other activities. The platform is expected to go live early 2009 in the U.S., London and other global markets. “STORM is an exciting and transformational innovation for the loan market. With the volatility we are presently experiencing in the markets and the threat of counterparty failure, certainty of settlement is crucial from a risk management perspective,” Steve Ewald, principal, global markets group at Bank of America, said in a statement. “The platform is a real solution that takes the loan market a long way towards accomplishing the goal of fast and certain settlement by automating what was previously an inefficient manual process. The benefits to market from a cost savings and risk reduction perspective cannot be overstated.”