Xenomorph has provided an integrated data driver between its TimeScape Enterprise Solution and Markit’s credit data web services supporting integration of credit derivatives and bonds daily pricing and Reference Entity Database (RED) from Markit. Markit’s dataset also supports the independent pricing of credit instruments using TimeScape’s Pricing Services.

Sophis has released a new version of its buy-side risk management solution, featuring credit derivatives and commodities enhancements. Sophis’s Value platform now offers new valuation and risk correlation modeling capabilities for credit derivatives. Sophis cites the increased popularity of complex cross-asset trading strategies as a key driver of its new credit derivatives model.

Ratings agency Fitch Ratings has acquired the ValuSpread credit derivatives pricing data business from Lombard Risk Management. Fitch paid £6 million plus £625,000 in deferred income for ValuSpread, which was founded in 1999 and provides daily information on credit default swap spreads. Fitch plans to operate the company as an independent business unit.

Kamakura Corp. has integrated Markit Group’s credit default swaps pricing database into its Kamakura Risk Manager default probability and default correlation models. The deal will give mutual clients pricing on more than 2,600 entities based on contributions from 50 dealing firms. The prices can be used as modeling inputs to the Kamakura systems.

Major banks involved in the credit derivatives marketplace have been called to a meeting with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to discuss risk management practices. The Fed, worried about the growing number of unsigned confirmations outstanding in the fast-moving credit derivatives markets, has invited senior executives and risk managers from 14 major players to a meeting in New York on September 15 to discuss risk management practices. Last month, the Counterparty Risk Management Policy Group urged market players to clear the backlog of unconfirmed trades and to set more robust infrastructures for processing credit derivatives transactions.

New York private equity firm TA Associates has injected $50 million into electronic derivatives trading platform Creditex in return for a minority stake. Creditex is an electronic execution platform for credit derivatives used by 800 traders worldwide.

SwapsWire went live last month, with eight dealers confirming their OTC equity options transactions electronically using the platform.

At its launch, 12 institutions had committed to use the system: Barclays, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale and UBS.

SwapsWire expects more to join soon. It also reported that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have used the platform to clear a backlog of executed but unconfirmed credit default swaps (CDS) trades between
themselves.

Investkredit Bank has opted for AIM Software’s risk management system to manage its credit risk calculations. The system will allow the bank to automate previously manual risk management processes, reducing the potential for error during data import and processing.

Bear Stearns is consolidating its derivatives trading and processing operations on to a single platform using Calypso Technology. The new platform will combine the investment bank’s credit derivatives processes with those for interest-rate and equity derivatives. Bear Stearns hopes the new set-up will streamline its front-to-back-office process flows.

Anvil has added a credit default swap (CDS) module to its Denarius system. Denarius is a deal-capture and straight-through-processing system covering fixed income, equities, money markets, repurchase agreements (repos), foreign exchange and derivatives. Users of the new module will be able to automate many aspects of a CDS trade, reducing the high proportion of broken trades that characterizes this marketplace.

Reuters plans to release a new Kondor Global Risk module, using grid and Linux technologies, for managing limits and credit exposures on an enterprisewide basis. The new module will feature a Basel II compliance module. IBM, Intel and DataSynapse were involved in the development to ensure the efficient use of grid technologies, which will support a Monte Carlo simulation engine.

Fortis Bank’s merchant banking unit has implemented SunGard Trading & Risk Systems’ Adaptiv Risk to manage its global counterparty credit risk exposures and limits in real time. The system is supporting several hundred users, who gain access on an ASP basis, in the bank’s Hong Kong, Taipei, New York, Singapore, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Krakow, Luxembourg, Brussels and London offices. Adaptiv processes over 5,000 trades per day and over 15,000 limits across a range of portfolios for more than 5,200 counterparties. Up to 100,000 deals per month pass through the system for pre-deal limit checking, exposure measurement and limits updates, violation management and credit risk reporting.

Standard Bank Group has selected SunGard Trading & Risk Systems’ Adaptiv Credit Risk as part of its plan to develop common credit risk processing platform for all investment and wholesale banking activities within the group. The South African bank will use Adaptiv Credit Risk to manage global wholesale credit risk across multiple locations on an ASP basis, using SunGard’s South African-based data centre as its host.

Kamakura Corp. has expanded the number of default probability correlations offered on its Kamakura Risk Information Service (KRIS). Kamakura now offers 896 million correlations between the default probabilities of all possible pairs of companies formed from its 16,000-company KRIS service. KRIS includes correlations for default probability maturities of one month, three months, six months, one year, two years, three years and five years. Pair-wise default probability correlations are essential to accurate pricing and valuation of collateralized debt obligations. Separately, Kamakura has released credit model performance tests to clients for version 4.0 of KRIS. Version 4.0 will be launched officially in the second quarter.

Three large Austrian regional banks – Innsbruck-based Bank fur Tirol & Vorarlberg, Klagenfurt-based Bank fur Karnten & Steiermark and Linz-backed Oberbank, jointly the Drei-Banken Gruppe – have selected Iris AG’s Riskpro credit risk analysis and Basel II compliance module after six months of testing.

Reuters is to distribute www.FirstKnow.It’s default probability and market implied ratings data on over 4,500 companies via its Reuters 3000 Xtra market data service. Default probability data is used to assess the default position of a corporation using quantitative credit models. Reuters was apparently drawn to www.FirstKnow. It by its back-tested methodology for calculating a range of credit analysis and accuracy of data.

Misys’ Summit Systems has launched a real-time collateral management module to replace its current batch-based capability. The new module, part of SummitFT, manages the complete collateral management process in real time, from counterparty demands, pledges, identification and valuation through to assigning and managing the collateral.

The U.K. Financial Services Authority has warned participants in the OTC credit derivatives market that they are failing to keep their operational risk procedures up to speed with the latest developments. The regulator has told business leaders in the market that it is their responsibility to maintain adequate back-office systems.

Progress Software’s ObjectStore unit has provided the underlying distributed access and caching software for the Reuters Kondor Global Limits system, a credit limit information and management system that forms part of Reuters’ Kondor risk product suite. Around 2,000 KGL users relies on data access from ObjectStore’s EdgeXtend system for better response times and faster transaction rates. KGL is an enterprisewide solution that consolidates credit limit information and manages it across a variety of financial instruments, providing a range of functions, including credit limit availability checks, automated regulatory reports and the ability to set global and local credit limits. The data access layer for KGL was designed, tested and deployed using ObjectStore EdgeXtend’s patented caching technique.

Athilon Structured Investment Advisors has licensed the Principia System to manage the complete trade lifecycle of its credit trading operation. The system will manage transactions from deal capture to risk management to reporting and accounting. Athilon Structured Investment Advisors act as advisor to Athilon Capital Corp. and Athilon Asset Acceptance Corp. The group specializes in providing credit protection on a portfolio basis to investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies and other institutions. Athilon will use Principia to assess risk and monitor performance of portfolios of structured credits, which cover a wide range of credit derivatives, including credit default swaps, basket products and synthetic CDOs.