U.S. Trust Enhances Systems with 'Magic.' (Computerized Application Development Software) (Management Strategies)

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WILL THE FUTURE of applications development look like magic?

Executives at U.S. Trust Corp. in New York City would have to say yes.

The bank, with $227 billion in assets under administration, specializes in money management, private banking, and securities services. Whe faced with the task of developing a mutual fund accounting system, it decided to experiment with a new application development tool called Magic Software.

"Mutual fund accounting is a highly specialized, exacting business," said Bernard Edelstein, a senior vice president and director of computer services at U.S Trust. "We were faced with a situation where we needed to create our own system because typical porftolio systems lacke rigorous accounting components and simply didn't fit our needs."

Using Magic's design tools, the mutual fund accounting system was up and running within six months. The service, marketed under the name MultiFact, currently handles processing chores for more than 200 different funds.

Since the mutual fund accounting system …