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.

Banquo Credit Management has gone live with the Principia System as its credit portfolio management solution in support of the recent launch of its first portfolio of fixed income investments underlying the MTNs issued by Diversification Notes ONE plc (DN 1). The London-based credit manager will use the Principia System to process investments in DN 1’s portfolio of diversified investment grade bonds and credit instruments.

EquiLend Adds U.S. Treasuries, Agencies to Lending Platform EquiLend has added support for U.S. Treasury and agency securities to its global securities lending platform. To date, clients have used EquiLend primarily to conduct bilateral securities lending transactions in the global equities market, with some coverage of corporate bonds.

Commerzbank Ilog’s JRules system to create an IT architecture for the development of a Basel II-compliant rating application. In addition to meeting Basel II requirements for its credit rating system by 2005, Commerzbank expects the new credit rating system to draw in more customers. The system will automate the complex customer rating process, which involves hundreds of unique and constantly changing rules that determine the credit-worthiness of Commerzbank’s commercial and private bank customers. JRules is part of Ilog’s Business Rule Management System (BRMS) product line.

Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) has selected Misys Risk Management Systems’ solution for Enterprise-Wide Risk Management, for bank-wide consolidation of limit and exposure data management. The solution will make use of Misys’ Risk Vision Data, a risk data warehouse, and Risk Vision Exposure, its exposure and limit management engine. The German bank made its selection – which will support more than 1,000 users worldwide – following a competitive tender with all known risk vendors, according to Misys.

Raft International’s credit risk management solution, Raft Credit, has been adopted by Mirant Corp., a U.S. wholesale energy marketer, to manage all aspects of its credit risk and help meet legal and regulatory demands. The company will use the core Raft Credit solution for exposure management and reporting, sophisticated workflow and comprehensive collateral management. The system is expected to enhance Mirant’s existing internal control infrastructure for managing credit risk and aid it in achieving full compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Separately, an undisclosed North American energy distributor and retailer, has also selected Raft Credit to manage all aspects of its credit risk and help meet legal and regulatory requirements, among them Sarbanes-Oxley and the new Standard & Poor’s reporting requirements for energy companies and utilities.

Calypso Technology has launched a certified training programme for implementation partners and customers. The programme is built around key requirements for ensuring a quick and successful implementation of its credit risk and other trading systems.

Fitch Group last month acquired Canadian risk management system provider Algorithmics for $175 million. Algorithmics’ Algo Suite of products is seen complementing Fitch’s current risk management offerings, including its credit risk and operational risk data, software and consultative tools. Fitch, a unit of Fimalac S.A. of France, is parent of the Fitch Ratings agency.

Risk system vendor Sophis has partnered with AXA Investment Managers to develop advanced capabilities for pricing, risk management and processing of credit derivatives. The venture builds on a three-year-old relationship that began when AXA signed up for Sophis’s Value system. The latest plan is to collaborate on developing solutions using AXA’s expertise in CDS, CDS n-to-default, CDOs, asset swaps, bonds, bond baskets and convertible bonds.

Wachovia will use Rockall Technologies’ securities collateral tracking system for both its consumer and wholesale loan portfolios. The system will automate processes involved in managing and valuation of securities held as collateral.

Tamesis has launched a pricing and risk management platform aimed at institutions trading lower volumes of credit derivatives. The U.K. vendor’s new Tamesis Credit Trader system provides trade capture capabilities and pricing from NumeriX for a range of credit derivative instruments. Interestingly, Tamesis plans to price the system on a per-user basis with no upfront software licensing requirement.

Standard & Poor’s has launched the Associated Obligor Link service, which enables users to identify obligations connected to a specific entity and its related obligors for over 680,000 municipal bonds. The service is aimed at credit analysts, risk and portfolio managers, researchers and compliance officers, who often want to know how obligors are linked to securities in order to determine the parties responsible for paying/guaranteeing debt service. The Associated Obligor Link service uses the six-digit CUSIP number as a reference identifier to establish the obligor link in credit risk management activities for both the pre-trade and post-trade life cycle.

Adaptive Data Engines, LLC has introduced a new variance reduction engine – the Copula Importance Sampling Engine (CISEngine) on its www.fastmontecarlo.com web-site. CISEngine provides variance reduction parameters for credit derivative simulations. It generates importance sampling variates and likelihood ratios for high-performance Monte Carlo simulations in credit derivative analytics.

Raft International has introduced Version 2 of its Raft Credit system, with several new features that allow credit professional to identify risk concentrations. Among the new modules is Raft Analytics, which supports analysis of credit portfolios under various scenarios, including Credit VaR and Potential Future Exposure. Another new module – Raft Executive Dashboard – provides a high-level summary view of all credit-related information directed towards executive management, commercial management, boards of directors and audit committees.

Dublin-based Hypo Real Estate Bank International has selected SunGard Trading & Risk Systems’ Adaptiv Collateral to manage the collateralization process supporting its derivatives and repo trading activity in 13 countries. The bank will use Adaptiv Collateral to help manage counterparty credit risk and streamline its collateral management operation. Hypo Real Estate Bank International was seeking a collateral management solution to support increased trading in derivatives and repos. In response to regulatory demand for overall improved credit risk management, control and transparency, Hypo Real Estate Bank International also wanted a collateral management solution that would provide a controlled environment to help it to mitigate credit risk, reduce operational risk, and provide a more comprehensive risk profile of its global trading operation. With Adaptiv, Hypo Real Estate Bank International senior managers can have a global view of their risk portfolio and can determine risk strategies that can help to enhance profitability.

Principia Partners has rolled out a new version of front-to-back-office trade management system for credit derivatives, with a focus on single-tranche CDOs (STCDOs). The new system expands on Principia’s coverage of the basket and portfolio credit derivatives products that are increasingly traded by a wide range of banking institutions, as well as insurance firms and hedge funds. Principia’s credit derivatives coverage now includes: Single-tranche CDOs; credit default swaps; digital/binary credit default swaps; credit default baskets (first to default and nth to default); options on CDSs and cancelable CDSs; and credit-linked notes.