BOSTON & BEIJING & LONDON & MELBOURNE, Australia & NEW YORK & PARIS & SINGAPORE & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Charles River Development (Charles River), a front- and middle-office software solutions provider for investment firms, today announced the expansion of its global operations with a regional office in Beijing, China. Located in the Excel Centre in the Financial Street area of Beijing, the office is staffed with experienced Charles River employees and multi-lingual Chinese nationals who provide China-based investment managers with professional implementation, consulting and support services. Charles River’s client base in China includes China Life Asset Management Company, the country’s largest institutional investor.

“The opportunity to invest in international securities has increased Chinese asset managers’ demand for front- to middle-office systems that can support complex investment strategies including domestic Chinese instruments, products and workflows,” said Tom Driscoll, Managing Director, Global, Charles River Development. “The Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS) can address any specific regulation, asset class, trading or language requirements our Chinese clients might have.”

Charles River IMS is available with full Chinese language capability and supports over 35 Chinese security types and associated workflows. Clients can use the system to trade, execute and manage complex Chinese domestic and international asset classes, portfolios and regulations. The system also offers direct Chinese exchange connectivity via a bi-directional real time interface to a widely-used domestic trading platform.

“Charles River has always grown its business organically,” said Cameron Field, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Charles River Development. “We build local teams of Charles River experts who understand the local investment management market, language and culture. These teams support our clients from local offices. And we make a significant investment to localizing our solutions. For the past three years we’ve taken this approach in China.”

Continues Field, “We are pleased to be the first global investment management solutions provider in China, and are continually enhancing our local solution. Charles River is currently working on a number of strategic initiatives with key market bodies and closely monitoring how the adoption of NGTS and the STEP Protocol will enhance connectivity, data integration and STP for Chinese clients.”

Charles River serves over 300 client firms worldwide, including more than 100 client sites across 14 Asian Pacific countries. With 55 Charles River IMS specialists serving the region, many bilingual Mandarin/English and Japanese/English speakers, Charles River maintains Asia Pacific headquarters in Melbourne, offices in Beijing, Tokyo and Singapore and regional presence in Hong Kong, Brisbane and Sydney.

More information regarding this announcement is available at www.crd.com