FINCAD and SAS Collaborate to Provide Banks with Enterprise Risk Management and Independent Valuations

VANCOUVER, British Columbia and CARY, N.C., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- FINCAD®, the trusted provider of derivatives analytics to leading global banks, and SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, today announced the two companies have formalized an alliance to provide a solution for banks to address their enterprise risk management and independent valuation needs.

Banks around the world face increasing pressure from internal and external stakeholders to improve risk management practices, comply with industry standards for valuation strategies and enhance transparency, all in an effort to avoid a repeat of the credit crisis. Regulators, meanwhile, point to incomplete, inconsistent and unreliable data as contributing factors to the financial crisis, and cite continuing inadequacies in this area as a major obstacle to more robust and efficient markets.

FINCAD provides financial institutions with independent valuations of their securities portfolios for all major asset classes including interest rate, foreign exchange, commodity, credit and equity derivatives, mortgage-backed securities, fixed income securities, and structured products. SAS® Risk Management for Banking provides risk analyses functionality that allows users to leverage FINCAD's industry-standard pricing library.

Working together, FINCAD and SAS give firms:

• Comprehensive risk capabilities covering market, credit, operational, and firm-wide risk
• Access to one of the broadest cross-asset class derivatives and fixed income analytics libraries that uses industry-standard models
• Full disclosure of the data, models, analytics, and risk measures

"With the recent distress experienced by the financial markets, it's more imperative than ever that a comprehensive risk management approach evolves to mitigate firm-wide risks and exposures to help firms thrive," said David Rogers, SAS Global Product Manager for Risk. "SAS recognizes the need for firms to innovate and develop business supported by a complete risk framework of data management, risk analytics and risk information distribution effectively across the enterprise. By leveraging FINCAD within SAS Risk Management applications, we can help our clients meet the market demands for more complete and timely risk information by combining the strengths of the two companies."

"Independent valuation is a key requirement in today's marketplace," said Amar Budhiraja, Director, FINCAD Alliance Program. "The derivatives and fixed income valuations provided by FINCAD give banks the required level of independent valuation and transparency needed to meet stakeholder and regulatory requirements. Third-party solutions from leading vendors such as FINCAD and SAS provide banks with a more comprehensive risk management solution, enabling them to save significant time and money over developing the systems in-house, while giving them the scalability and flexibility they require."

Combining the strengths of SAS and FINCAD enables banks to develop effective risk policies that are designed to continuously manage a firm's risk-and-return profile and the capital required for long-term success. To learn more, click here to download the white paper.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.  Copyright © 2009 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

About FINCAD

Founded in 1990, FINCAD provides software and services supporting the valuation and risk management of cross-asset class derivatives and fixed income securities to banks, hedge funds, asset management firms, corporate treasuries, and auditors. FINCAD is the industry standard for financial analytics used by more than 35,000 financial professionals in over 80 countries. Over 70 FINCAD Alliance Partners embed FINCAD analytics within their solutions. FINCAD provides sales and client services from Dublin, Ireland and Vancouver, Canada.  www.fincad.com

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SOURCE FINCAD; SAS