Amsterdam/London/Toronto – 10 December 2007 - SecondFloor and Algorithmics are delighted to announce that the risk management solution ECAPS, built by SecondFloor and Algorithmics for ING Corporate Insurance Risk Management (CIRM), has won the prestigious Banking & Finance ICT Innovation Award 2007 for The Netherlands. This award is presented yearly by Banking & Finance, a European Platform for Financial Professionals.
ECAPS is a common platform for risk management, implemented across the 30 plus countries on five continents in which the global insurance organization of ING operates. The solution was built using Algo Risk, Algorithmics’ portfolio construction and risk management solution and a SecondFloor intranet application that collects and processes data and produces risk management reports. This joint effort was designed and built within exceptionally short timelines (nine months) and resulted in an improved market risk and economic capital calculation engine with more advanced techniques and an enhanced reporting system.
In particular, ECAPS has pioneered the approach of applying “mass produced” replicating portfolios to risk management in insurance. ECAPS provides the ability to simultaneously update over 40 ING business units worldwide and the system and processes are auditable and SOX compliant. This environment of increased automation and control has allowed ING to publicly disclose economic capital results for the first time, to reduce risk reporting time by 60%, and to allow instant access to global market risk data. It also establishes a firm basis for upcoming Solvency II requirements and a potential platform to meet IFRS Phase II accounting requirements for insurers.
“Together with Algorithmics and ING we delivered a solution that provides better insight and improved performance for ING CIRM” says Martin Knook, General Manager business development of SecondFloor. “Winning this award is an indication that the outside world definitely recognises the added value of this solution.”
Doug Caldwell, ING CIRM’s manager stated: “Between SecondFloor, Algorithmics, and ING (…) we have come up with a terrifically innovative system, especially in the area of mass producing replicating portfolios of insurance liabilities for use in risk management.”
Curt Burmeister, Algorithmics’ Senior Director of risk solutions said, ‘This has been a tremendously exciting project to work on with our partner SecondFloor and ING. Algo Risk provides complete Replicating Portfolio capabilities including Scenario Generation, Asset Modeling, Optimization and Risk Reporting, while SecondFloor has delivered the data integration platform that makes the risk analysis possible. This innovative solution is helping ING to combine its asset and liability management within a single, ‘fair value’ consistent framework and I believe it will prove to be a solution that has wide implications across a range of insurance companies in the future.’
Notes to Editors
Algorithmics is the world's leading provider of enterprise risk solutions. Financial organizations from around the world use Algorithmics' software, analytics and advisory services to help them make risk-aware business decisions, maximize shareholder value, and meet regulatory requirements. Supported by a global team of risk experts based in all major financial centers, Algorithmics offers proven, award-winning solutions for market, credit and operational risk, as well as collateral and capital management. Algorithmics is a member of the Fitch Group.
Algo Risk offers insurers, pension funds and asset managers a fully integrated, flexible platform for assessing future market risk across an organization in a single, consistent, rigorous environment covering all investment strategies across all risk factors and asset classes. It can also be offered as a managed service. It covers both traditional assets and sophisticated, structured products. The Mark-to-Future framework delivers accurate real-time analysis and allows users to assess the impact of a new deal on a portfolio’s existing risk profile. It is designed to help firms achieve greater profitability in today’s competitive world markets.
Fitch Group is the parent company of Fitch Ratings, a global rating agency dedicated to providing the world's credit markets with independent and prospective credit opinions, research and data. The Fitch Group also includes Derivative Fitch, an independent provider of a suite of ratings and comprehensive services for the credit derivatives market; Algorithmics, the world's leading provider of enterprise risk solutions; and Fitch Training, which offers high-quality analytical training for financial professionals. The Fitch Group is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fimalac, S.A., headquartered in Paris, France. For additional information, please visit www.fitchratings.com www.algorithmics.com www.fitchtraining.com and www.fimalac.com
SecondFloor is an IT project organization, based in The Netherlands. SecondFloor services organizations within the financial industry with comprehensive expertise of the industry and IT. SecondFloor provides business process improvements, (SOA) software solutions and temporary professionals to organizations that want to redefine and renew their (IT-) processes, that seek for new solutions or want to introduce new products into the market. Industry best practices and a proven project management approach are the foundation of the services, solutions and sourcing possibilities that SecondFloor offers.
ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 75 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries.
With a diverse workforce of about 120,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.
End of press release
For further information:
SecondFloor BV
Machteld van der Meer
Tel: +31 (0)6 43359315
E-mail:
M.vandermeer@secondfloor.nl www.secondfloor.nl Algorithmics
Evelyn Brodie
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7392 5820
E-mail
Evelyn.Brodie@Algorithmics.com Banking & Finance
www.bankingfinance.eu © 2007 Algorithmics Software LLC. All rights reserved. ALGO, ALGORITHMICS, Ai & design, ALGORITHMICS & Ai & design, KNOW YOUR RISK, MARK-TO-FUTURE, RISKWATCH, ALGO RISK SERVICE, ALGO CAPITAL, ALGO COLLATERAL, ALGO CREDIT, ALGO MARKET, ALGO OPVANTAGE, ALGO OPVANTAGE FIRST, ALGO RISK and ALGO SUITE are trademarks of Algorithmics Trademarks LLC.
© 2007 SecondFloor BV.