AutoRek’s Client Money Management enables AvaTrade to add enhanced security over client assets

AutoRek, the leading financial controls software provider, has today announced that its solution has been deployed by AvaTrade’s Irish regulated EU subsidiary, Ava Capital Markets Ltd, to automate its client money reconciliation and protection processes.

As part of its commitment to providing the ultimate protection for client assets, AvaTrade, an industry-leading Forex & CFD broker, has introduced greater automation which meets stringent Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) regulations surrounding client money whilst allowing the firm to maintain its focus on high growth.

AutoRek’s reconciliation system has been selected to work in conjunction with AvaTrade’s existing trading platforms and ring-fenced bank accounts for custodial assets – which are unique within the FX/CFD industry. Working with AutoRek creates seamless reconciliations of general ledger records which account for all AvaTrade’s client trading activity. AutoRek’s solution is highly scalable and provides AvaTrade with a strategic financial reporting tool for the long term. Using this solution, AvaTrade, which executes over two million worldwide transactions per month, can now provide clients with an extra layer of security not offered by other FX/CFD brokers.

As part of the initial deployment, AutoRek has delivered:

• Automated daily client money requirements: AvaTrade can now processes transactions each day to create client money sub ledgers
• Multi-currency bank reconciliations: AutoRek can reconcile external client money bank accounts with AvaTrade’s accounting records to address all its operational accounting, reporting and reconciliation challenges
• Full general ledger operational accounting: by mining the trading transaction data generated by AvaTrade to provide general ledger entries across multiple currencies and fully account for AvaTrade’s operations

Daire Ferguson, Managing Director at AvaTrade, explains the decision to implement AutoRek: “After a rigorous selection process, we chose AutoRek because we felt that they understood our business and could work with us to develop a solution unique for the CFD and FX industry.Under MiFID, FX/CFD brokers are required to hold client funds in segregated accounts that prevent brokers’ own funds from being mixed with client money. However, brokers still maintain full access to their client fund accounts. We needed to introduce a platform that would provide our clients, and the regulators, with a state of the art solution for the protection of client assets. AutoRek has now delivered a fully scalable and almost entirely automatic process that enables us to meet the challenges of client money regulations and compliments our unique custodial ring-fenced accounts so that we can no longer access client funds.”

Gordon McHarg, managing director of AutoRek, comments on the AvaTrade deployment: “AvaTrade is a market leader in a vibrant and growing area of the financial services sector. We are delighted to have delivered a strategic client money solution capable of handling the increased volumes and supporting future growth plans. Client money protection regulations require organisations to install and maintain robust client asset protection processes capable of detailed reporting to regulators. This can be very challenging for businesses like AvaTrade which are constantly offering new and innovative products. By automating data management disciplines, AvaTrade has been able to reassign resources to further product innovation and customer service that would have otherwise have been tied-up in manual accounting and reporting processes.”