ALMIS® International, a leading provider of Balance Sheet Management, Regulatory Reporting and Hedge Accounting technology in the UK, are delighted to announce that Darlington Building Society have chosen to extend their 10-year relationship.

Darlington Chief Financial Officer, Steven Forth commented that “We are grateful to have ALMIS® International’s support and expertise covering asset liability management and Hedge Accounting. The software is proven and well respected across the industry and we are pleased to extend what has been a long and reliable relationship.”

“Chief Product Officer at ALMIS® International, Luke DiRollo added, ‘Extending our contract is a great testimony to the reliability and dependability of our software and services. We have enjoyed working with the Society for many years and are truly delighted that this will now continue into the future.”

About Darlington Building Society

Darlington Building Society operates throughout the North East and Yorkshire and had assets of £752m at 31 December 2021. The Society’s head office is in Darlington, where it has been based since 1856.

Darlington were named Best Self Build Lender for the second year running at this year’s Build It Awards.

About ALMIS® International

As market leaders in controlling financial risk, ALMIS® International uses proprietary cloud-based IP across a single fully integrated platform to enable global banking institutions to make insightful and timely management decisions.

For more information about the range of ALMIS® products visit https://www.almis.co.uk/product/

With benchmark interest rates expected to rise further over the next year, and continued uncertainty over the shape of the yield curve, banking institutions face significant pressure to ensure that they are effectively managing their interest rate risk to maintain profitability.

ALMIS® held an expert panel to discuss these hot topics, which was attended by over 130 practitioners from over 60 banking institutions.

Webinar Agenda

– Overview of current interest rate environment, yield curve and expected forward rates. 
– Quantifying interest rate risk positions – when and how to recognise exposure. 
– Managing interest rate margins and hedging strategies. 
– Risk appetite, limits and ALCO reporting.

This webinar, including the slides, are now available for our clients to view on the Client Area. However, if you are not a client and are interesting in viewing the webinar please simply email [email protected] to request it.

Since the company was set up in 1992 we’ve continued to develop compliant, fast to implement and easy to use software solutions for our clients.   We build upon feedback from our clients and in sharing of knowledge with our dedicated team to refine and hone our product offering and client support. Find out more about who we are what we do for banks and building societies in the UK and further afield with our new video. You can watch this video here.

We are very pleased to announce that the ISO9001 Quality Management System Certification has been awarded to us by BSI.

We have always had quality as a key strength, it has been and is at the core of our DNA. Our team have worked effortlessly with continuous improvement at each milestone . We are proud to announce recognition of our teams dedication and to achieve this standard of quality management certification. Very well done to all the team involved!

This week, ALMIS® International held a webinar on the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) Interest Rate Risk Standardised Framework. PRA is one of the successors to the Financial Services Authority and falls under the auspices of the Bank of England. The PRA Rulebook now states that a firm may elect to implement a standardised framework and our webinar set out to examine the impact of this.

The webinar was attended by around 60 of ALMIS® Internationals UK banks and building society clients, during which we examined the concepts behind the standardised framework and how this contrasts with ALMIS® software own models for calculating the BASIL 3 interest rate sensitivities.

Interest rate risk in the banking book has developed significantly following BASIL 3 reforms and now includes EVE (Economic Value of Equity) and Earnings Sensitivity Measures.

The majority in attendance felt they would continue instead with our ALMIS® software calculation method which is inherently more accurate as it uses more granular cash-flow periods.

However, some attending the webinar said they would prefer the new PRA regulatory metric which ALMIS® now supports using a dedicated report writer template. This integrates direct feeds from ALMIS® calculated cashflows and yield curves.

Moreover, we welcome the new standardised framework and wish to support this as well as the more accurate calculations supported in ALMIS® software.

ALMIS® central function is to support decision making around interest rate risk hedging and to combine this with the UK’s regulatory framework and reports.

We are organising a full day masterclass on IRRBB using ALMIS® software to assist clients on 25 th May, and the ALMIS® User Group meeting on the following day we will discuss this subject further.

If you are interested in any element of financial regulatory reporting, then please get in touch via LinkedIn.

ALMIS® International is delighted to announce that two of our team, Senior Business Analyst Matt Poole, and Head of Product Pipeline Luke DiRollo, have been acknowledged with merit certification by ALMA – The Asset and Liability Management Association – a membership organisation which provides education and promotes awareness of asset and liability risk management issues through a series of national courses and conferences.

The organisation’s 100 strong membership of UK and Irish financial institutions shares views on areas as diverse as risk systems strategy, structuring of balance sheets to manage liquidity, credit and capital, experience in e-commerce and strategic business direction – all areas where the ALMIS® International team excels.

Joe DiRollo, founder, and MD of ALMIS® International comments:

“Both Matt and Luke have studied for the ALMA profession qualification – the CertBALM – accredited by the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

They both attained CertBALM certification with Merit which, from a continuous improvement and career developmental perspective, is fantastic news for the hard work and diligence shown by Matt and Luke. More widely, however, it further empowers the entire ALMIS® International team’s commitment to reach the highest possible levels of understanding the complexities of regulatory compliance and procedures. This is why membership of ALMA is so important to ALMIS® International.”

The collapse of Northern Rock in 2007 was a memorable moment for Joe Di Rollo, not only because it signalled the beginning of the financial meltdown that would spread around the world; it also marked a step-change in the fortunes of ALMIS® International.

Continue reading this interview between Joe Di Rollo and Daily Business here.

Edinburgh Wednesday 11^th August 2021: ALMIS® International, the Edinburgh-based asset liability and treasury management software developer, has announced the appointment of its first Chief Technical Officer to spearhead innovation and development for the regulatory compliance of banks and building societies.

Chris Smith, aged 42, has more than 20 years’ experience in solutions architecture, and software development infrastructure, joins ALMIS® International from Cegedim Healthcare Solutions, an innovative technology and services company providing management software suites to GP Surgeries and Pharmacies across the UK.

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in a global regulatory focus on technology and innovation as regulators look to shore up procedural compliance.

The company has positioned itself as one of the key software developers in this field and as Joe DiRollo, founder and managing director of ALMIS® International explains, the appointment of a Chief Technology Officer to oversee future incremental development of the product suite to comply with the regulatory demands placed on banks and building societies, helps ALMIS® maintain its position as a prominent corporate financial software developer.

He comments,

“We are delighted to welcome Chris Smith as ALMIS® International’s new Chief Technology Officer. “For some time, we have been searching for the right candidate who could drive through our medium to long term product development strategy. Chris comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience, creating and developing software in industries such as forestry and healthcare. He’ll be a strong addition to the team and provide the right balance of strategic thinking coupled with a practical hands-on approach to leading the developers and technical staff.”

Chris Smith said: “This is an exciting challenge and one that I am very much looking forward to. ALMIS® International is a hugely successful software firm operating in an area of the financial sector bound by extensive governance, risk, and compliance. This is a tremendous opportunity. I am very much looking forward to playing a key role in the future success of the company.”

The company is located in central Edinburgh and has a staff complement of 25 staff predominantly in development and technical support.