ZEPHYR COVE, Nev. - StyleAdvisor, the style analyzer and performance analysis software of Zephyr Associates Inc., has several new users.
They include the $2.2 billion San Diego County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement System; the consulting firm The Carmack Group, Alhambra, Calif.; the investment company Colonial Consulting, New York; the financial research company Interactive Data Corp., New York; and mutual fund provider Benham Management Corp., Mountain View, Calif.
Brian Karcher, a research analyst at Benham, has used StyleAdvisor for about six months and has found it advanced in comparison with competing products he examined.
Because of Benham's planned merger with The 20th Century Cos., Kansas City, Mo., Mr. Karcher is using StyleAdvisor to examine the investment styles of mutual funds of both companies to detect any overlap.
StyleAdvisor can do a style analysis automatically of every mutual fund or money manager in a user's database or a database supplied by the vendor. StyleAdvisor can then scan and sort the data for a particular criteria, such as high excess returns.
Mr. Karcher also is doing benchmark selection and evaluation for the company's mutual funds. He is determining whether the chosen benchmarks are really suitable and compatible.
"I have found StyleAdvisor useful for quite a number of different functions," he said.
Other mutual funds using StyleAdvisor are Vanguard Group Inc., Valley Forge, Pa.; Wellington Management Co., Boston; T. Rowe Price Associates, Baltimore; Putnam Investments, Boston; and Nicholas Applegate Capital Management, San Diego.
Manager licenses PAM
PASADENA, Calif. - Western Asset Management Co., Pasadena, Calif., has licensed the PAM for Securities and PAM for Mutual Funds investment management and accounting systems from Princeton Financial Systems Inc., Princeton, N.J.
Western Asset Management, with $13 billion in assets under management, is one of the largest investors in fixed-income derivatives.
Western will place its new investment management and accounting systems from Princeton on a Novell local area network using IBM-compatible PC servers. Some 65 traders, portfolio managers and investment accountants will have access to PAM on the network.
Bill Currier, manager of information systems at Western, said the firm was "looking for something that was very flexible and could deal with the constantly changing market."
For further information, contact Gordon Gacek at (609) 987-2400.
IBM Japan chooses U.S. firm
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - IBM Japan, Tokyo, has selected Infinity Financial Technology Inc.'s Montage Data Model for its financial systems integration business.
The wholesale banking and capital markets segment of IBM Japan will use Montage Data Model as the base for building customized risk management systems for IBM Japan's clients.
Tatsyuki Yasunaga, manager of the banking, finance and securities industries of IBM Japan, said Infinity has "developed a leading-edge product that is critical to any derivatives operation .*.*. in such a way as to ensure its acceptance and longevity." He said the Infinity product adheres to open systems principles.
For further information, contact Christina Fuller at (415) 940-6100.
Futures data goes global
NEW YORK - Telekurs North America announced it will provide real-time information on futures globally.
Telekurs Ticker Services is providing a digital broadcast of pricing, descriptive and fundamental information from more than 30 of the major futures markets worldwide in the United States, Canada, Europe, Far East and Latin America.
Its global futures service also provides information on futures and futures options listed on exchanges that trade multiple security types.
Telekurs also will provide international securities information for SunGard Asset Management Systems' planned SunDIAL (SunGard Data Integrated Access Link).
SunDIAL will consolidate pricing, descriptive, fundamental and corporate-action information on global securities. SunDIAL is expected in the fourth quarter.
