Pricing Partners, the independent valuation expert and a world leader in mathematical models and analytics for derivatives and structured products, announced today that one of the largest French banks selected its platform Price-it online to double value its Interest Rate, Equity, Credit and Inflation derivative products.
This bank, which wished to remain under anonymity, decided to innovate in terms of transparency and proximity with its clients. With this action, this bank has become a pioneer bank in responsible finance by offering access to an independent valuation on its OTC derivative products.
This bank was looking for a trusty and recognized solution. After an assessment of the available solutions, it selected Price-it online, Pricing Partner's online platform, for the reliability of its valuations and the large range of covered assets. As a matter of fact, the interest rate division of this bank was already a Pricing Partners' client and was very satisfied with its solutions and services. Logically, this major French bank extended Pricing Partners scope to do independent valuation on its equity derivatives.
In the current period, transparency and financial responsibility has become a major concern. Recently, the American Justice Department's antitrust division has started investigating the supposed lack of transparency of the $26 trillion Credit Default Swaps Market and the alleged privileged access of some financial institutions to some critical pricing information. This case has been on the front page of many newspapers like the Wall Street Jounal as transparency is becoming a major concern for the regulators and the public authorities. And this is not a surprise that this has been the subject of strong declaration and commitment from the French President Nicolas Sarkozi and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. By providing independent valuation on derivatives, this bank makes a big step towards full transparency.
Eric Benhamou, CEO of Pricing Partners comments "Being the independent valuations provider of this top French bank on the entire set of its derivatives assets, ranging from interest rate, equity, credit and inflation, is an outstanding landmark for our independent valuation platform Price-it online. Since we already obtain the valuation on its interest rates derivatives, this extension to the other derivatives asset classes rewards our professionalism and quality of our collaboration. More than ever, we, Pricing Partners, will be committed to provide superior independent valuation service with our utmost efforts. With this new reference, we make an important step forward towards even greater recognition for our pricing models, our tools and our independent valuation platform. Hereby, we are underway to become the leading player in the field of transparency on the financial derivatives and structured products."