The solution will be used to model the impact of business decisions on risk capital as well as to perform regulatory reporting. Basel II Capital Manager is a modeling and analysis solution that helps financial institutions meet compliance requirements and develop risk-sensitive approaches for managing economic capital.

Basel II Capital Manager will help YBS to achieve compliance and accreditation for the Basel II Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approach for capital calculations, helping it to free capital that it currently must set aside under existing regulations. YBS will use the drill down and multi-level data manipulation capabilities of Basel II Capital Manager to enhance risk analytics and help identify areas where capital could be used more efficiently.

The Capital Manager will also help YBS to fulfill both regulatory and internal management information requirements by acting as a data repository for reporting purposes. The solution helps provide data transparency, increased automation, and includes a full audit trail and tracking mechanism.

Tim Brooke, head of group audit and risk at YBS, said, "We expect to achieve incremental benefits with SunGard's Basel II Capital Manager, which will help us to meet regulatory requirements, improve capital effectiveness and enhance risk information in support of the Society's chosen strategy. We selected SunGard because of its demonstrated reliability - we also use BancWare ALM for interest rate risk management and Reech FastVal for independent valuations of our structured derivatives portfolio. We also liked many of the features of the Basel II solution, such as the audit and control functions, data transparency and risk-sensitive approaches for managing regulatory and economic capital. We are confident in SunGard's ability to provide a leading solution for Basel II as it has successfully completed implementation of Basel II Capital Manager for a number of leading financial institutions in the UK."

Richard Reeves, managing director of SunGard's Basel II Capital Manager business unit, said, "Having completed a number of implementations for Basel II, we are taking a partnership approach to helping our customers meet regulatory and internal requirements for capital management and reporting. We can help them avoid common pitfalls and develop best-practice credit risk and capital management frameworks by providing a combination of real-world experience and the latest academic thinking."

Separately, SunGard today announced that Serono (virt-x: SEO and NYSE: SRA), the Swiss-based biotechnology group, has selected SunGard's AvantGard for its central treasury operation in Geneva. AvantGard-Integrity will provide fully integrated treasury and risk management and a strongly enhanced platform for managing its financial assets, valued at USD 1.8 billion at the end of 2004. AvantGard is a leading treasury and risk management solution suite offering Internet/intranet-based currency and commodity trading and risk management, cash management and accounting within a single environment.

Paul Wilkinson, treasurer of Serono, said, "We selected AvantGard to help improve the overall treasury management capability through more extensive risk management functionality and more complete coverage of financial instruments. Optimum management of both foreign exchange and financial assets was key to the project, which in turn demanded accurate and reliable valuations and compliance with evolving accounting and governance standards, all functionality that AvantGard provides."

Martin Boyd, executive vice president, EMEA, of SunGard's AvantGard business unit, said, "AvantGard will help Serono to meet the rigorous reporting requirements demanded by corporate governance, compliance and hedge accounting standards. In addition, AvantGard will help improve security through the automation of a number of manual processes. We look forward to working with Serono on this project and partnering with it through the future evolution of its treasury business."