SunGard Trading and Risk Systems (www.sungard.com) has acquired RioFin Limited, a UK-based financial markets application developer, for an undisclosed sum. RioFin develops and markets RioEquity, an equity, equity derivatives and convertibles system that provides functionality for trading, operations/controlling and risk management.
As part of the deal, Gavin Lavelle, founder and principle shareholder of RioFin, has joined SunGard as president of its Panorama operating unit. Prior to establishing RioFin in 1998, he was worldwide head of equities and equity derivatives risk management at Deutsche Bank. He also worked at Banque Paribas for eight years, where he was head of equity derivatives trading.
SunGard has acquired RioFin following a close development partnership which began in 1998. RioEquity is fully integrated with Panorama, SunGard's enterprise solution for integrated cross-asset trading, market, credit and operational risk and will henceforth be rebranded as Panorama Equity.
The integrated Panorama/RioEquity platform is aleady in use at a number of financial institutions worldwide as a single solution for implementing complex cross-asset trading and hedging strategies.