SHK Financial Group will invest $20 million to move off its mainframe computers and on to a Java-based solution to handle trading.
This represents the first phase of a programme to rewrite applications, and SHK will accomplish this in collaboration with Sun Microsystems, inventor of the Java programming language.
Sun will provide experts to help with the implementation, to be completed in three phases over 24 months. The first phase should take about six months and will move most of the mainframe applications over to the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform.
Daniel Yu, Greater China president at Sun, said: 'This is a landmark development that reveals the growing impact Java technology is [having on] banking, finance and other key industries in Hong Kong and the Greater China region.'
SHK chairman Arthur Dew said the $20 million was a first investment and, as the project progressed, the group would look at spending more.
The group had looked at many other solutions, but chose Java and Sun for its flexibility.