Briefs

MEASUREMENT ADVANCES

Algo promotes two – Algorithmics, the Toronto-based financial software firm, announced that Kim Olson – current managing director of Fitch Ratings’ credit policy group – will join Algorithmics to serve as co-managing director of its capital management business. Mina Wallace, Algorithmics’ vice-president, global operations and managing director, north America, will share co-management responsibilities with Olson. Fitch purchased Algo earlier this year. At Fitch Ratings, Olson was key in developing a methodology to explicitly factor corporate governance within the agency’s corporate rating methodology, and has worked on credit ratings policy criteria issues. Previously, she served at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and with the Secretariat of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland.

SAS launches new product – In mid-May, North Carolina-based software giant SAS launched the OpRisk Monitor, a web-based application that collects, manages, tracks and reports information about operational loss events, key risk indicators and risk and control assessments. The solution is part of the family of products it developed in the wake of its acquisition of OpRisk Analytics in 2003. Société Générale, the French banking group, has selected SAS for its op risk management needs. "Effectively monitoring and controlling internal op risks is a strategic issue for us," says Martine Tribulet, project manager for Basel II/op risk at SocGen. "By identifying the business benefits of op risk management at an early stage, Société Générale will enjoy a competitive advantage in the lead-up to the Basel II deadline."

Symb releases Aptius 2.0 – London-based software firm Symb has released version 2.0 of the Aptius Operational Risk Framework. It says Aptius provides comprehensive functionality for identification, measurement and management of op risk, and now features a fully integrated requirements management system for regulatory requirements and op risk programme implementation. New simulation capabilities include the ability to calculate estimates for risk and capital using OpVAR, loss data Monte-Carlo and perturbation analysis of risk models. The new version now also contains full support for integrating multiple business units on a global basis, allowing organisations to both view and manage its op risk firm-wide.