Developing Countries Benefit from Low-Code Revolution — DLM Finance Makes “Trade Manager” App to Unleash Capital for Emerging Economies

Trade Manager fills software void holding fund managers back from investing in developing markets

Financial software platform made in only two months using Mendix low-code framework

Solution satisfies stringent reporting requirements set by European regulators

DLM now allows customers to explore financial markets overlooked by traditional legacy software platforms

BOSTON – September 23, 2020 — Mendix, a Siemens business and global leader in low-code application development for the enterprise, today announced that DLM Finance, a Dutch financial services provider, has used low-code to make Trade Manager, a purpose-built global financial software platform for fund managers making investments in developing countries.

Legacy financial software platforms and software consultants have long neglected serious issues around successfully investing in developing markets. Issues include the scarce availability of market data, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting, compliance, and business intelligence needs for investors in these economies. For example, Bloomberg and Reuters do not list interest rates for longer maturities in countries such as Myanmar or enable compliance on European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) reporting requirements set by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). DLM Finance’s Trade Manager addresses the needs of these fund managers and funds with comprehensive functionality and specialized reporting tools that are expected to spur investment in a growing multibillion-dollar market.

“We believe in taking destiny into our own hands,” said Frank Nijssen, chief customer officer, DLM Finance. “When we started our company, we quickly realized that no existing software fulfilled our needs. In 2013, ESMA began to issue new regulations to safeguard financial systems and reduce operational risk with detailed reporting requirements for derivative traders. That prompted us to build a compliant application from the ground up. We took on the complex task, which was made possible by using the Mendix platform. With Trade Manager, our customers were amongst the first companies in the Netherlands to comply with the new EMIR regulation.”

The complete application to address EMIR reporting was devised and developed in just two months on the Mendix low-code platform by Finaps, a Mendix partner specializing in financial applications, in collaboration with DLM Finance.

Low-code is a visual development approach to application development that enables developers of varied experience levels to create applications for web and mobile, using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic through a graphical user interface.

A Targeted Solution to Serve Needs Related to Underrepresented Markets

Trade Manager is DLM Finance’s main platform and serves two primary user groups: customer users such as fund managers and (hedge) funds, and DLM Finance’s operations team. Customer users can tap into a wealth of features within the Trade Manager, entering their deals into the system for recording purposes. The application provides payment information and sends out invoices. It also helps customers manage their risks. Since DLM Finance offers its customers the full-service package, DLM’s operations team uses Trade Manager for administering deals, accounting, or managing risks for their clients, if the customer so desires.

Due to their relatively smaller market capitalization in developing countries, traditional financial software providers have less interest in developing tools specifically for these markets. The high costs associated with customizing traditional financial software is not an option for many funds and fund managers. Trade Manager is purpose-built to serve the needs of these parties in these underserved markets.

On-the-Spot Low-Code Development That Keeps on Giving

Spurred to act by ESMA’s 2013 slate of financial regulations, DLM Financial’s development team brought its ideas to an initial meeting with the Mendix development team. “At the meeting, the consultant listened closely and built an application on the spot,” said Nijssen. Impressed, DLM Finance ordered a larger proof-of-concept application. Finaps joined the team, creating a successful prototype. Convinced, DLM Finance and Finaps expedited the creation of the new Trade Manager application.

Additional features continue to be added to the Trade Manager platform, based on customer feedback and ideas from DLM Finance’s development team and evolving customer needs and regulations. Today the platform acts as a complete fund management system and integrates seamlessly with enterprise ERP systems. Trade Manager leverages Mendix’s extensibility options to include specialized SQL and Java-based querying tools for reports handling unusually large amounts of data.

“The truly open architecture at the core of our low-code platform enables organizations to build upon their existing infrastructure and workplace environment to extend their digital capacities,” said Hans de Visser, vice president of product development at Mendix. “No use case or customer solution is static. Low-code software development enables customers to seamlessly update and improve their systems without diverting excess time and resources from business-critical needs.”

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Background
In a pandemic-disrupted world, software is the new lifeblood of our daily lives and the connective tissue holding together the global economy. However, traditional software development takes far too long and very often fails to deliver the results business needs and users love. Even prior to COVID-19 there were simply not enough professional software developers in the world to build all the software currently required. The global pandemic has accelerated and exacerbated what was already a software and business crisis. Enter low-code software development. Low-code from Mendix is a powerful enterprise-grade visual development approach empowering citizen and professional developers to make cloud-native applications more than 10X faster for web and mobile using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic – all through an intuitive graphical user interface. 

Learn more about the Mendix Platform and Pricing and Availability.

About DLM
DLM provides systems and back/mid office services, such as valuation, risk management and social impact reporting, to fund managers and other parties that are active in emerging and frontier markets. DLM provides most of these services using the Trade Manager, which is a system specifically built for fund managers in these markets.

About Mendix

Mendix, a Siemens business, is the only low-code platform designed to address the full complexity of enterprise software development challenges. Deploying point solutions to departmental problems solves things at a micro level—but if you want to make a significant impact on your business, you need to go bigger and build powerful portfolios that move the needle sustainably and strategically.

With Mendix, enterprises can take on more complex, transformational initiatives by engaging everyone in capturing requirements, forming ideas, and embedding value assessment throughout the lifecycle of the software portfolio.

Focus on the right problems while relying on governance and control to avoid unnecessary risk. Mobilize your organization. Build the change readiness muscle. And when the next big idea drops, turn it into an outcome quicker.

More than 4,000 organizations in 46 countries use the Mendix low-code platform. An active community of over 300,000 developers has created over 950,000 applications – and counting.