NumeriX, the independent market leader in pricing and risk analytics, announced the launch of NumeriX Portfolio 2, the next-generation, multi-user, front office pricing platform.
It replaces NumeriX PowerPricer, which has been in production at major financial institutions for more than five years.
Customer and market feedback drove this breakthrough offering, which is comprised of four architectural pillars; 1) award-winning NumeriX analytics; 2) enterprise quality scalable grid infrastructure capable of using both dedicated servers and user desktop machines to leverage unused PC cycles; 3) unique graphical user interface, and 4) a scalable distributed database. Implemented in C# using Microsoft's .NET 2.0 framework with SQL Server 2005 support, NumeriX Portfolio 2 enables companies to systematically and reliably generate prices and sensitivities for books of exotic deals, with the same flexibility and ease of use as the trader's preferred Excel desktop pricing solutions.
"Users have requirements which exceed the capabilities of Excel," said Cubillas Ding, Senior Analyst for Celent. "Hundreds, if not thousands, of financial companies, like hedge funds and small banks who realize that they have reached the limitations of Excel, are currently not and may never be in a position to purchase a trading system due to cost and are therefore left with limited choices."
"NumeriX Portfolio 2 overcomes this obstacle by offering its own analytics "on steroids" along with a database to manage a medium to large book of business, all in a highly scalable solution. For customers that require a front through back office trading system, NumeriX analytics will transition with them," said NumeriX President and COO Steven R. O'Hanlon.
Aozora Bank, a leading Japanese commercial bank, faced a significant challenge managing its growing portfolio of structured products that are difficult to capture and price. "NumeriX understands our market and provides comprehensive support for the latest structured derivatives. We chose NumeriX Portfolio, because the intuitive interface is more sophisticated and user friendly without losing any of the functionality ofy of NumeriX analytics. We believe this will enhance our structuring power and increase the flexibility of unique products," said Hideyuki Muto, Head of Quants & Financial Engineering. "Now, we can easily support all emerging products and be confident that our chosen platform will expand with the market."
"During the last six years, NumeriX has established a world class list of partners represented by the most prominent trading and risk system providers in the industry" continued O'Hanlon. "These partners are poised to offer their trading system solutions with NumeriX analytics embedded, by integrating NumeriX Portfolio 2 in the same manner in which they have integrated NumeriX 6."
"We are currently working closely with NumeriX on a high visibility joint client project in which NumeriX Portfolio 2 (inclusive of NumeriX 6) is being integrated into Algorithmics' Algo Risk solution via the Open Mark-To-Future application programming interface," said Michael Zerbs, President and Chief Operating Officer of Algorithmics. "This combination of NumeriX's advanced pricing capabilities with the flexibility and scalability of Algorithmics' enterprise risk management solution will provide our customers with powerful insights into the risk-return tradeoffs associated with advanced products at the transaction and multi-asset portfolio level."
"Buy-side and sell-side institutions will reap productivity gains and time to market advantages from NumeriX Portfolio 2's unique ability to easily migrate structures from Excel spreadsheets into in-house trading and risk systems, all while maintaining consistent analytics throughout the lifecycle of a trade," said NumeriX CEO Dr. Gregory Whitten. "Ultimately, we anticipate that users will incorporate NumeriX Portfolio 2 into risk infrastructures of all sizes in order to improve their current business processes without impacting their legacy databases and applications."