October 12, 2010

Financial firms demand enhanced risk management

FINCAD's updated F3 line identifies hot spots

Financial firms report that improvement in risk management practices is a priority now more than ever. In response to this need, FINCAD's latest improvements to its F3 product line provide the finance industry with the necessary risk information needed to identify portfolio hotspots and more efficient scenario analysis to enhance current risk management best practices.

F3  is FINCAD's most flexible derivatives analytics platform.  Built on a stateful, object-oriented architecture, the F3 product line provides the ability to define virtually any trade.  The flexibility is complemented by the detailed risk reports available in the system that provide the information necessary to hedge away the risk in a portfolio.   The patent-pending technology calculates first-order risk, a unique feature in commercially available derivatives analytics.

"We're very excited to bring F3 to market this year to customers who have been calling for better, more flexible risk management tools.  It's an important step for FINCAD and its customers, as the need to better manage risk is more critical than ever," said Bob Park, President and CEO, FINCAD. "Our technology now gives professionals who deal with risk every day a very powerful tool to advance and improve current risk management practices, including improvements in scenario analysis."

"Stress-testing and scenario analysis on portfolios is a critical component in risk management. Being able to evaluate the most extreme circumstances has always been necessary, but it's also important to be able to look at specific markets and run scenarios with more precision," said Cubillas Ding, Research Director, Celent.  "In order to improve upon risk management practices, the more tailored we can make the scenarios, the better the analysis.  This ultimately means better management of exposures.  While there is no crystal ball, it's an important component for financial firms to not only be able to manage their risk of their overall portfolios at the company/portfolio level, but also for the hedging strategies incorporated for the various desks or business units."