Finastra’s Summit wins “Best AI-Enabled App for Capital Markets” at the AI in Capital Markets Awards
We are delighted to announce that Finastra’s Summit solution was awarded “Best AI-Enabled App for Capital Markets” at the inaugural AI in Capital Markets Awards, hosted by the A-Team Group. This prestigious event highlights the pivotal role of artificial intelligence in transforming the capital markets sector, recognizing the most innovative AI-driven solutions that are delivering tangible value to financial institutions.
Summit, our comprehensive solution for OTC derivatives trading, was recognized for its groundbreaking use of AI to automate and streamline post-trade operations. In particular, the AI-powered pre-settlement matching capability within Summit stood out for efficiently handling complex unstructured data, boosting accuracy, and mitigating operational risk—capabilities that are now even more critical as the industry advances towards shorter settlement cycles like T+1.
To uncover more about the award-winning solution and its market impact, TradingTech Insight (TTI) interviewed Elena Nicolescu, Director of Product Management for Summit, Treasury & Capital Markets at Finastra. Below is the full interview:
TTI: Congratulations on the award. To start, could you give us a high-level overview of the Summit pre-settlement matching solution and the specific post-trade challenge it was designed to solve?
Elena Nicolescu (EN): Thank you. Summit’s AI-powered pre-settlement matching solution automates payment validation by extracting and reconciling trade details from unstructured data. This improves accuracy, speeds up processing, and reduces operational risk.
Fully integrated with Summit, the solution supports next-day settlement readiness, enhances compliance, and delivers measurable efficiency across post-trade operations.
It was designed to solve challenges such as the validation of cash settlements before sending payment orders, to secure payment orders and meet cut-off times, and to handle different file formats in an automated manner.
In fact, the most notable challenge our clients face is managing a myriad of non-standard information flows and processes. To complete their daily settlements, they are often forced to rely on manual steps, such as reconciling emails, screenshots, and spreadsheets with trade data; tasks that cannot be resolved through mapping or automated tools.
Our solution not only provides an engine that can easily interpret data and extract required information, but it seamlessly introduces that data into Summit’s STP processing, allowing the client to use a fully automated, end-to-end workflow.
TTI: Your entry highlights an AI-powered workflow as the core innovation. Can you elaborate on how this AI differs from traditional, rule-based systems in handling unstructured data like PDFs and how it continuously learns to improve matching accuracy?
EN: Unlike traditional rule-based systems, Summit’s solution uses AI to interpret and structure the external data into Summit-readable formats, enabling seamless integration into the STP workflow.
The AI continuously improves matching accuracy by learning from historical data and exception patterns. We also offer customers the flexibility to integrate their own AI engines, as more and more frequently, we see clients adopting AI strategies centred around their proprietary models. In this case, it can incorporate proprietary data to improve matching accuracy.
TTI: With the industry’s move to T+1 settlement, how critical is this level of automation for ensuring regulatory readiness and reducing the risk of failed trades under compressed timelines?
EN: This is part of the big picture. As these settlements are part of the T+1 regulatory readiness deadlines, the technology frees up operations and leads to increased efficiency in other areas.
TTI: The solution is fully embedded within Summit’s post-trade ecosystem. What are the advantages of this integrated approach compared to using a standalone, third-party AI application?
EN: There isn’t any need for additional development to integrate the solution. The Summit Pre-Settlement Matching blotter displays both internal and external settlement flows out-of-the-box, highlighting pending and matched items. This provides transparency and a clear view of the settlement status.
TTI: Looking ahead, what is the future roadmap for this AI-enabled capability? Are you planning to expand its scope or introduce new machine-learning-driven features?
EN: Summit will remain a strategic platform for banks’ digital transformation and operational excellence by proactively adapting to market changes, regulatory developments, and client needs.
The team will continue to deliver timely, standards-aligned solutions through close customer collaboration and by leveraging flexible As-a-Service models for rapid, non-disruptive deployment.
Our key focus areas for Summit enhancements center on workflow optimization, scalability, and advanced analytics. The platform is being enhanced to support real-time processing and automation through APIs, AI, and service extensions, while consolidating asset classes and post-trade processes for unified back-office control.
Improvements in parallel processing and system performance aim to reduce total cost of ownership and boost operational efficiency. Additionally, Summit is expanding its risk analytics capabilities with new data extraction tools, integration layers, and a modernized data aggregation framework to deliver a more powerful and intuitive user experience.
Our ultimate and continuing goal is to develop Summit as the Cloud platform of choice for banks’ digital transformation and operational excellence.
We are proud of this recognition and excited to continue driving innovation in capital markets with Summit. Congratulations to the entire team, and special thanks to Elena Nicolescu for sharing her insights!
