Wüstenrot & COPS – a long-standing partnership
The Austrian Wüstenrot Group today incorporates four divisions: Bausparkasse Wüstenrot, Wüstenrot Versicherung and Wüstenrot Bank, which was founded in 2022 and rounds off the financial services portfolio. Wüstenrot Technology covers the area of information technology. In 2025, Wüstenrot Austria celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The collaboration between Wüstenrot and COPS began around 20 years ago when the investment portfolios of the building society and insurance company were to be migrated to a new platform. The in-house solution used until then had reached its limits with the planned expansions – particularly in derivatives and interest rate risk hedging. After a thorough market survey, Wüstenrot opted for PMS. The solution was first implemented at Wüstenrot Versicherung, followed four years later by Bausparkasse.
Development into a central treasury system
With the expansion to include the Bausparkasse, asset liability management (ALM) was set up for the credit institution group in addition to the group-wide treasury. The interest rate risks of the entire customer portfolio, including interest rate options, were integrated into PMS to enable a holistic view. In addition to the assets side of the balance sheet, consisting of lending transactions and investments, savings deposits on the liabilities side were now also included in the analysis.
Another milestone was the introduction of Pfandbrief issues in the Bausparkasse. Today, PMS covers numerous financial instruments in the Wüstenrot Group – in addition to investments in bonds, shares and funds, the entire funding with term and call money as well as repo transactions through to securities lending transactions and loans in Wüstenrot Versicherung.
Efficient hedging and automated accounting
Over ten years ago, Wüstenrot introduced efficient hedge accounting with the General Ledger Interface (GIL). This allowed the derivatives transactions for interest rate hedging at the Bausparkasse to be booked automatically.
The hedging process has been further optimized in recent years:
- Micro-hedging continues to be used for selected assets such as bonds.
- Macro-hedging makes it possible to realign the interest rate hedging of retail transactions on a monthly basis. Differences in the yield curves are calculated, a scenario analysis is executed and the new exposure is hedged. This change has led to a significant simplification of hedging processes at Bausparkasse.
Successful system integration & continuous optimization
The smooth integration of PMS into Wüstenrot’s system landscape is largely ensured by Wolfram Weber’s team. With his five-person support team, he forms the interface between PMS, the IT systems and the specialist departments.
A central focus of the team is the support of release changes and the introduction of new functions. The aim is to carry out tests for the specialist departments with minimal effort. The team relies on:
✔ Automated test procedures
✔ Comprehensive plausibility checks of the data
✔ Continuous process optimization
A valuable partnership for innovation and further development
Iris Kocmata from COPS has been working with Wüstenrot since 2012 and appreciates the close collaboration:
“The valuable input from Wolfram Weber’s team helps us to continuously develop corima.PMS. Thanks to the long-standing partnership, Wüstenrot is a pioneer in the development of our solutions.”
corima.PMS will continue to be developed in the future to integrate new regulatory requirements and financial models. Weber’s team will be crucial in validating requirements from the specialist departments and passing them on to COPS.
Trust and cooperation at eye level
Wolfram Weber is highly satisfied with the long-standing partnership:
“We always find an open ear for professional and technical concerns at COPS. The support works flawlessly, and over the years we have developed a working relationship on an equal footing.”
A key success factor is the continuity of the people involved. The well-established cooperation facilitates the further development of the software and ensures a high level of efficiency. The restructuring of the Wüstenrot Group two years ago with the launch of the bank and the focus on a digital realignment was also implemented smoothly thanks to the flexible system architecture.
Conclusion: A success story with future
PMS has accompanied the growth and transformation of the Wüstenrot Group for 20 years. Thanks to the close cooperation between Wüstenrot and COPS, the system has been continuously optimized and adapted to new challenges. With this strong partnership, Wüstenrot will remain optimally positioned in the future.