Sophis names Emmanuel Fruchard director, fixed income and credit professional services

He will be responsible for advising users of RISQUE, the firm's sell-side solution, as they develop new models for creating structured products and cross-asset trading strategies. As head of a rapidly growing professional services unit, Fruchard will also work with a strong team of quantitative mathematicians and risk modelling experts in Sophis' research department.

Fruchard brings a total of 18 years' industry experience to his new role at Sophis. Having started his career in research, financial engineering and analyst positions with Credit Lyonnais and Lazard Frères & Cie in Paris, he moved to the technology side when he was appointed Director of Financial Engineering at Summit Systems in New York.

The appointment cements Sophis' commitment to serving clients across all asset classes, following the release of version 5.0 of RISQUE in June 2005, which featured enhanced commodities, credit and interest rate derivatives modules. "The pace of innovation in the credit derivatives market is testing banks' ability to price and model risk to the limit, while the growth in the hybrid derivatives market is putting great pressure on structured product teams. Across all asset classes, derivatives are getting more complex and banks are looking to differentiate themselves via their speed to market with new products. Technology is key to the pursuit of competitive advantage in this market and we are committed to partnering with clients to achieve this," said Fruchard.