Alliance changes its reporting software
BLOOMFIELD, Conn. -- Money management firm Alliance Capital Management Inc., New York, and investment group The Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton, Wis., have licensed SS&C Technologies Inc.'s CAMRA 2000 global investment management and reporting software.
Alliance will replace its in-house system with CAMRA 2000 for accounting and reporting for insurance company portfolios totaling $25 billion.
The Aid Association for Lutherans will use CAMRA 2000 to help manage its $12 billion investment portfolio. CAMRA 2000 will replace AAL's in-house mainframe system.
The specific modules AAL will deploy include CAMRA 2000 Compliance, CAMRA 2000 Performance, CAMRA 2000 NAV, the Trading Room and the Report Wizard.
"We chose SS&C because their products offered us better functionality than other systems we considered," said Ken Schiller, investment operations director at AAL.
"Specifically, we liked CAMRA 2000's MBS/CMO processing capability, the system's response to our statutory reporting and accounting needs, our ability to integrate our front and back office operations around a single solution with an extensive and easy-to-access database, and the ability of CAMRA 2000 to support both our general and separate account assets through use of the NAV module."
CAMRA 2000 is a 32-bit Microsoft Windows system. For more information, call Jen Trocciola at SS&C at (860) 286-2250.
Risk management software models portfolio values, returns
NEW YORK -- Risk management software provider Askari Inc. has released a new product that models portfolio values and returns across market, credit, asset/liability and cash-flow risks.
Called Askari RiskBook, the software allows asset managers, banks and large corporations to measure and control risk exposures over multiple reporting periods.
Peter Davies, Askari president, said many institutions that have installed value-at-risk systems for market risk measurement have found the systems have limited applicability and are expensive to maintain in isolation from other risk management models.
"Our clients recognize that the different risk types are views in a continuum of risk through time. They want to account for all risk factors affecting values, returns and cash flow," Mr. Davies said.
For more information, call Jay A. Burstell at Askari at (212) 219-0730.
PORTIA software attracts 55 new clients in '97
BOSTON -- Thomson Investment Software's PORTIA portfolio accounting software signed 55 new clients in 1997, according to figures released by company officials.
Year to year, PORTIA's revenue growth was largely driven by a 109% increase in sales in the Asia Pacific region, a 60% increase in Europe and a 35% increase in Latin America, Thomson officials said.
Software firm changes name to Investment Technologies
NEW YORK -- Sponsor-Software Systems Inc. has changed its name to Investment Technologies.
Brian Rom, president, said the market for the company's products has expanded to include more than defined benefit and defined contribution plans with asset allocation and performance measurement software.
Investment Technologies offers The Expert Allocator for Windows, The Expert Performance Analyst for Windows, Risk Assessment for Windows and Data Services.
For more information, call Mr. Rom at (212) 724-7535.
Value Line upgrades tracking, analysis software
NEW YORK -- Value Line Publishing Inc. has put a new software interface on its stock tracking and equity portfolio analysis software The Value Line Investment Survey for Windows.
The new interface provides improved icons leading to Value Line's stock research system, which includes its weekly newsletter, individual company reports and index/data listing. The program also has a What's New icon that highlights earnings reports, stock splits and latest stock rankings.
Its online Internet updates also have been simplified. Distributed monthly on CD-ROM or disks, the service costs $595 a year or $50 for a two-month trial.
Leading Market allows several looks at once
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Leading Market Technologies has developed software that integrates electronic information from various sources, including Open Bloomberg.
Called MarketBrowser, the software, its developers say, allows users to easily access, graph, chart, view and analyze market data from multiple sources simultaneously.
For additional information, write to Siobhan E. Gallagher at Leading Market Technologies at [email protected]
International publication on FIRST CALL
BOSTON -- International Economic Indicators, a daily publication, is now available on the electronic research service FIRST CALL Research Direct, Boston.
International Economic Indicators is published by the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research Inc., which focuses on innovation in economic measurement methodology as applied to leading economic indexes, inflation and financial markets in the United States and other industrial nations.
Brokerages opt to take TradeRoute
BOSTON -- Nine brokerages have made commitments to send orders over TradeRoute, an order routing and execution reporting services of AutEx Group, Boston.
The brokerages are: Citicorp Securities Services; Credit Suisse First Boston; Fidelity Capital Markets; Garden State Securities; M.H. Meyerson; Sherwood Securities; Spear, Leeds and Kellogg; Trimark; and UST Securities.
Kamakura updates Risk Manager
HONOLULU -- Kamakura Corp., a risk-management consulting and software development company, has introduced a new version of its Risk Manager software.
The 1.6 version allows users to value and manage financial instruments with embedded options and other derivatives.
Its added test suites allow users to view and validate how the software has analyzed calculations on a variety of securities.
It also has an expanded database to capture additional information for more accurate valuation of fixed rate securities.
FAME buys international Benton Associates
NEW YORK -- FAME Information Services Inc., a provider of time-series data management, has acquired Benton Associates, an international technology and consulting firm.
"With the acquisition of Benton, FAME is dramatically expanding its consulting services, which integrate FAME's offerings into sophisticated time-series solutions," said Steven Silberstein, FAME chief executive officer.
