SunGard acquires Kronos Software

Pennsylvania-based technology firm SunGard Trading and Risk Systems has acquired London-based Kronos Software, the real-time risk management and trading solutions provider.

SunGard said it hoped to use Kronos’ technology to enhance the functionality of its Infinity trading and risk management product. The terms of the acquisition have not as yet been finalised, but SunGard said it does not expect this to have a material impact on its financial results.

SunGard wants to use Kronos’ Web-based trading environment to extend Infinity’s straight-through processing capability to include external sources and counterparties. Users will be able to connect to their counterparties online for price discovery and deal execution.

SunGard also hopes to use Kronos’ technology to add real-time market risk management to Infinity. Kronos’ component-based architecture will enable Infinity to process the large amounts of data necessary to perform real-time market risk calculations, said SunGard.

Risk magazine, RiskNews’ sister publication, awarded Kronos its Software Product of the Year award in its 2000 Risk awards, for its pioneering component architecture.

Amir Khwaja, founder and chief executive of Kronos, has been appointed vice-president of SunGard’s Credient/Infinity business unit, and will be leading the effort to integrate SunGard and Kronos’ businesses.

“The opportunity to lead software we have developed at Kronos within the Credient/Infinity business unit is one that we are very excited about,” said Khwaja.

SunGard also said today that Boeing Employees’ Credit Union (BECU) has signed up to its BancWare Perspective performance measurement platform. BECU, which is the largest financial co-operative in the state of Washington, and one of the top five credit unions in the US, with over $3.7 billion in assets, will use SunGard’s BancWare Perspective solution for its asset and liability, forecasting and data management. SunGard said it expected BECU to use BancWare Perspective to evaluate risk-adjusted product returns and delivery channel implications.