Synchronicity Ltd has developed the Facility Manager personal computer-based system for automating the administration of syndicated loans. The prototype model was installed at the National Westminster Bank Plc’s Corporate Treasury Department a year ago at a cost of UKP40,000. The system co-ordinates the process in which a client goes to the bank asking for a substantial loan over a period of time. The agent bank, NatWest, will then use the system to administer the process in which it has to approach a whole series of other banks who are underwriting the loan. The participation if each of the different banks will vary in terms of amounts loaned, interest rate offered, period of the loan and the calculation of the fees being charged, for example. Currently the process is run manually by many banks who have to track rates, amounts and dates and arrange changes in the amount borrowed, often at very short notice, on pain of losing large amounts of money. The system was written in Clipper and is running on three networked 80486 personal computers. NatWest estimates that it has saved itself about UKP80,000 in administration costs in the first year of operation. Synchronicity is now marketing the product with NatWest’s help. The company is based in Bethnal Green, London and has been specialising in personal computer-based bespoke systems in the bank and security trading markets since 1982.
