PASADENA, Calif. - The $20 billion Los Angeles County Employees' Retirement Association, Pasadena, has decided to license the equity analysis software program Atlas, and the $20 billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Juneau, has installed the IMS-2000 investment management system.
Lisa Mazzocco, senior investment officer for equities at LACERA, said she will use Atlas to enhance in-house monitoring capabilities of the fund's equity money managers. LACERA does extensive in-house monitoring of its managers, as well as receiving reports from its external pension consultants.
Offered by Wilshire Associates, Santa Monica, Calif., Atlas includes several software modules for analysis, including attribution analysis.
With Atlas, Ms. Mazzocco said, she can better identify the source of a manager's investment performance. Performance attribution can identify the strengths and weaknesses of a portfolio's structure by quantifying the sources of return compared to any benchmark.
Atlas values portfolios on a multicurrency basis. It incorporates pricing and fundamental data from more than 60 developed and emerging countries. Its global risk models define risk as exposure to currency, region, country, industry and fundamental factors.
At the Alaska Permanent Fund, Calvin Kubota, comptroller, said the IMS-2000 investment management and portfolio accounting system permits the fund to keep better track of its information. The system is made by QED Information Systems Inc., Medor, N.J.
"We get an accurate picture of market value with IMS-2000," said Mr. Kubota. He said the system permits the Alaska fund to "slice and dice" its portfolio to permit excellent analysis and "shows us what we own."
He said the system also offers 300 different types of reports. The integrated order management system is used to send in-house trades to the fund's custodian, Bank of New York.
AA&M goes with CAMRA
CHICAGO - Asset Allocation & Management Co. L.L.C., Chicago, has selected CAMRA 2000 software for asset management, reporting and accounting.
CAMRA 2000, a product of SS&C Technologies Inc., Bloomfield, Conn., will replace the firm's current software system.
Asset Allocation & Management provides investment counseling, professional management consulting, actuarial services and investment banking services to more than 100 insurance companies with more than $8 billion in assets.
For further information, contact William C. Stone at SS&C at (860) 242-7887.
Brown taps Frontier
SAN DIEGO - Frontier Analytics Inc., San Diego, has signed an agreement with the investment banking firm Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. to develop a customized version of Frontier's AllocationMaster portfolio management software.
Alex. Brown's 450 investment representatives in the firm's 22 offices nationwide will use the program, according to Randal Moore, president of Frontier Analytics.
"We need to have a total understanding of the many segments of a client's portfolio - the risk characteristics, liquidity needs, etc. - so we can fully meet the client's objectives," said Paul J. Schiminger, vice president and manager of investment resources for Alex. Brown & Sons.
For further information, contact Mr. Moore at Frontier at (619) 552-1268.
Caswell to lead Advent
SAN FRANCISCO - Peter M. Caswell has been named president and chief operating officer at Advent Software Inc., San Francisco.
He will take on additional responsibilities for overseeing the growth of engineering and customer support, said Stephanie DiMarco, Advent's chief executive officer. Mr. Caswell has had responsibility at Advent for sales, marketing and professional services.
Advent's front-, middle- and back-office software for investment management organizations is used by 4,000 financial institutions, according to Advent officials.
Advent announced net revenue for the quarter ended March 31 increased 37% to $9.6 million from $7 million for the same period the prior year. Key Advent products are Axys Release 2, investment portfolio accounting and management software, and Moxy Release 2, trade order management software.
For further information, contact Irv H. Lichtenwald at Advent at (415) 543-7696.
Bits & Bytes
National Mutual Funds Management, Melbourne, Australia, has purchased TradeView, the order management system, from Thomson Investment Software, Boston. Thomson officials recently announced the availability of TradeView in Asia and the Pacific Rim. TradeView automates the placement and monitoring of multicurrency equity and fixed-income security orders on a real-time basis. For further information contact James Reno at Thomson at (617) 856-2442 . . .
Internet Securities Inc., Boston, publisher of emerging market news that is delivered through the Internet, has announced new products for Latin America. Its Andean Region product includes Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. It also has a new product for Chile. News is delivered in English and Spanish. For information, contact Cameron A. Lochhead at Internet Securities, (617) 204-3100.
