SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, an operating group of SunGard, has acquired the WhiteLight Basel II solution, including WhiteLight’s SymphonyRPM development team.
WhiteLight’s Basel II solution – a calculation, analysis and reporting solution that uses the SymphonyRPM Analytic Platform – is being re-branded as the SunGard Basel II Capital Manager. The SunGard Basel II Capital Manager aims to help banks to comply with Basel II by providing capital and economic calculation models for the balance sheet, stress testing and reporting for market disclosure, and the flexibility to model different rules and rule sets according to different national jurisdictions.
The solution also aims to facilitate comparison of the standardized, foundation IRB, and advanced IRB Basel II approaches for credit risk, as well as “what if” analysis, stress testing across the retail and wholesale banking books, and Basel II reporting.
As part of the agreement, SunGard also has the right to develop other analytic applications based on the SymphonyRPM Analytic Platform.
WhiteLight’s Basel II development team will become part of the BancWare operating unit of SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, working closely with Dean Jovic, group managing director, risk/Basel II.
Recently, UK building society Alliance & Leicester selected WhiteLight’s Basel II solution for its regulatory compliance requirements.
“Achieving compliance with the proposed Basel II recommendations is of foremost concern to financial institutions worldwide,” says Richard Reeves, managing director of WhiteLight. “SunGard has the global presence, financial strength and resources to see clients through a project to meet regulatory requirements today and into the future. As a part of SunGard we will be able to leverage a global network of resources and distribution channels to provide the presence, delivery and implementation skills needed to help clients comply with evolving regulatory demands.”
The SunGard Basel II Capital Manager is complementary to SunGard’s enterprise-wide risk management solutions for market, credit and interest rate risk management. It will be integrated with SunGard’s overall Basel II offering, including the underlying market and credit risk solutions required to build a Basel II-compliant risk infrastructure, providing both on-and off-balance sheet data for regulatory calculation. SunGard further offers a solution to consolidate, cleanse and enrich the required data, along with integration, consulting and professional services to help clients design and implement their Basel II solution.
“A regulatory calculation and analysis engine is a key component for financial institutions that want to be Basel II compliant,” says Jim Ashton, group chief executive officer of SunGard Trading and Risk Systems. “With our acquisition of the WhiteLight Basel II solution, we are able to offer the SunGard Basel II Capital Manager for capital calculations, completing our current Basel II offering. We have successfully used the technology underlying the SymphonyRPM Analytic Platform in our BancWare profitability and performance measurement solution for several years. We expect the SymphonyRPM Analytic Platform to add value to other SunGard solutions by providing real-time data access, rule-driven calculations, predictive analysis and interactive OLAP exploration capabilities.”
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SymphonyRPM is a privately held company, with primary funding from Symphony Technology Group.