12 July 2010

Managing the Liquidity Risk of Commercial Real Estate Portfolios

Risk Integrated CEO Chris Marrison proposes banks can manage their liquidity risk for the commercial real estate portfolio using the same tools they have used for assessing their credit risk. The article is due to appear in this month's Commercial Lending Review. more

13-14 September 2010

Chicago, US - 4th Annual Commercial Real Estate Risk Conference

Risk Integrated will be the silver sponsor this year for a multiple day conference taking place in Chicago later this summer. Chris Marrison will present the best approach for quantifying the impact of missing commercial real estate loan data. He will show how excluding the effect of, for example, lease terms or tenant ratings, can materially impact the accuracy of risk metrics. Prominent members of financial institutions and regulators will also attend. more

24 February 2010

Conference on Commercial Real Estate Risk Management

Risk Integrated sponsored a one-day conference in central London for commercial real estate risk management. Leading UK and European banks and regulators came to share their best practices for management of the CRE portfolio. Dr. Chris Marrison discussed, in specific, our company's process to embed a risk system at large banks.

11 February 2010

Risk Integrated Launches New Stress Test Platform

Risk Integrated released its Generalized Finance System, which is a web-based risk measurement and reporting platform that allows financial institutions to run stress tests easily and securely. CTO Yusuf Jafry clarifies that the GFS will enable risk analysts to prototype their models in Excel, but control and audit them in a robust, scalable system. more

14 January 2010

Will Commercial Real Estate Bring Down the Bank?

CEO Chris Marrison discusses how the commercial real estate department at banks can demonstrate they have a consolidated, credible view of the risk in their IPRE and construction portfolios. Here is his article that appeared recently on the Banking New York website. more

7 December 2009

Risk Integrated Helps Financial Institutions Implement Fast, Accurate Portfolio Stress Testing

The Generalized Finance System was launched today by Risk Integrated as a system to help risk and portfolio managers stress portfolios of highly varied asset types, including retail and corporate lending and mortgages, CRE, equity and securitizations. more

9 November 2009

Risk Integrated Adds New Suite of MIS Reporting Tools

Risk Integrated announced today that it has added new functionality to its system for commercial real estate risk measurement. Its Specialized Finance System has been extended with a new suite of reporting tools to create an enterprise-level Management Information System. more

25 September 2009

Linking Stress Tests to the Real Economy

In a whitepaper to appear in the financial press this autumn, Risk Integrated CEO, Chris Marrison, discusses a method for adding real world structural elements to risk models for almost any asset class. His approach is to adjust an asset's probability of default by using the ratio of expected net income in nominal and stressed cases. more

13 August 2009

Construction Lending

A shortened version of this paper will be appearing in the September issue of Banking Systems & Technology. In it Chris Marrison introduces the concept of using cashflow simulation to evaluate risk in construction projects. Two related commercial real estate projects are compared to show how cashflow simulation can give different risk results as compared to nominal and stress cases. more

1 August 2009

Basel Shines More Light on Operational Risk

The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision has published two papers recently to clarify the important area of operational risk. Both Risk Integrated CEO, Chris Marrison, and the chairman of the Basel Committee and president of the Netherlands Bank, Nout Wellink provide their commentary in Project Finance International. more

23 July 2009

Capital After the First Shock

In an article first appearing in GARP's Risk Professional, Risk Integrated CEO, Chris Marrison, shows how the financial crisis has revealed some of the shortcomings in Basel II banking regulations and what banks themselves should do to more accurately align their capital reserves to their risk profile. more

July 2009

Viewpoint: Making Risk Capital More Stable

In the current volatile economic climate, risk models using mean reversion are best. They adjust for the state of the macroeconomy by counteracting the fluctuation in the standard financial ratios and provide more stable results. more

2 July 2009

Risk Integrated is Sponsoring the 3rd Annual Commercial Real Estate Risk Conference

The conference will be held Monday and Tuesday, September 14-15, 2009 in Boston, Mass. (hotel TBD). Risk Integrated CEO Chris Marrison will present a case study entitled, Integrating Risk Management and Reporting at the World's Largest Bank. more

18 June 2009

Risk Integrated Receives Top 3 Ranking in Compliance Products

For the third year running, Risk Integrated has been recognized as one of the top three companies providing advanced solutions for implementing spreadsheets, enterprise-wide, at the world's largest financial institutions. Our Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform helps banks avoid the typical sources of problems by centralizing the spreadsheets most heavily relied upon, within a rock solid enterprise solution.

9 April 2009

HSBC Installs the SFS to Manage Risk for CRE Assets

Commercial Property News featured an article online today discussing the advantages gained by HSBC with the implementation of Risk Integrated's Specialized Finance System to risk manage its commercial real estate assets. more

8 April 2009

Stress Testing for Risk Management in Commercial Real Estate

Real Estate Weekly featured an article today by Risk Integrated CEO Chris Marrison who cautions against overcounting your risk in the commercial real estate portfolio. A rich data environment is discussed as the solution to the problem. more

30 March 2009

HSBC Implements Risk Integrated's Specialized Finance System for Commercial Real Estate Assets

Risk Integrated today announced that HSBC has installed the firm’s Specialized Finance System. HSBC is using the SFS to gather detailed data on its commercial real estate loans and report on the portfolio’s risk profile. The system covers lending to both investment properties and construction projects. more

14 January 2009

Pressure to Change Basel II Capital Rules

In a recent interview appearing in The International Securitisation Report, Dr. Chris Marrison suggests simulation models have significant advantages in minimizing the pro-cyclicality of Basel II capital. more

12 January 2009

Why Basel's Not Faulty

Undesirable pro-cyclicality in banks' capital calculations should not be wholly blamed on the Basel II legislation. Online this month at Credit magazine, Chris Marrison argues that most of the pro-cyclicality is due to the models that banks choose for making the Basel II calculations. more

15 November 2008

Cyclicality: Good Times Get Worse, Bad Times Get Better

In a recent article appearing in Mortgage Finance Gazette, Dr. Chris Marrison specifies the importance of making countercyclicality adjustments in the risk management of commercial real estate assets. more

5 November 2008

Practical Advice for Embedding Risk Models in Project Finance

Duncan Martin, Head of Wholesale Credit Modeling at the Royal Bank of Scotland and Chris Marrison, CEO of Risk Integrated review the implementation strategies for embedding risk models in a bank's day-to-day business. Their remarks appeared in early November 2008 on the Infrastructure Journal website. more

10 October 2008

Managing the Liquidity Risk of Commercial Real Estate Portfolios

To control their reliance on external funding, bank treasurers can get an accurate reading of the liquidity profile of their CRE portfolio by using the same data and framework already in place for assessing their capital requirements. more

30 June 2008

Untangling the Risk

The May 2008 issue of Project Finance magazine and online news services features an article written by Risk Integrated's Peter Andresén. He discusses what we feel is the best strategy for reducing error in predicting future cashflows in project finance lending and commercial real estate deals. more

30 June 2008

Get a Fix on Floating-Rate Risk

In this month's issue of Mortgage Risk magazine, Risk Integrated CEO, Chris Marrison, examines the four principle forces luring banks back to floating rate lending: forgetfulness, the borrowers' desires, their treasury department and mislaid risk. more

14 June 2008

The Great Property Price Panacea

The use of property derivatives are not new in the UK commercial property market, but could experience strong growth in the US in the coming years. Risk Integrated's Peter Andresén explores the nascent property derivatives market and how their use necessitates solid quantitative methods for valuing risk. more

14 June 2008

Data Integration or Bust

Risk Integrated's Roger Chi relates the importance of disciplined and complete data integration for assessing credit risk in commercial real estate portfolios. In the recent issue of Mortgage Finance Gazette, the process of creating a central, structured repository, allowing institutions to quickly assess their true risk position, is described. more

10 June 2008

Risk Integrated Receives Top 5 Ranking in OpRisk & Compliance Survey

For the second year running, Risk Integrated's Specialized Finance System has been recognized in as the 'best spreadsheet product' for taming spreadsheets within an enterprise-level system from OpRisk & Compliance magazine. They compile their 2008 compliance software rankings from responses among key global, financial institutions. more

10 June 2008

New Investment Analysis Tool Boosts Investor Confidence

As the effects of the current real estate market permeate into the CRE sector, investors are demanding more understanding of the risk exposure and market stresses on their portfolios. In a recent article appearing in the U.S. in Real Estate Weekly online news, Risk Integrated now offers a new equity analysis module in response to demands for more transparency. more

8 May 2008

Risk Integrated Introduces New Investment Analysis Tool

Risk Integrated announced it has added an equity analysis module to its Specialized Finance System for Commercial Real Estate. The addition allows portfolio and asset managers the ability to analyze debt and equity investments within a single, coherent system. more

28 April 2008

Advances in Quantifying Risk in CRE Lending

In the latest edition of Briefings in Real Estate Finance, Risk Integrated has published an article giving examples of how the risk in individual commercial real estate deals can be assessed and re-structured using the Specialized Finance System. more

28 February 2008

Tooled Up for Measuring Property Derivatives Risk

Risk Integrated has expanded the capabilities of its Specialized Finance System by adding cashflow analysis for the use of property derivatives in commercial real estate lending. more

21 February 2008

Modelling Good but Complex Project Finance Deals

Dr. Peter Andresén warns that the constantly evolving deal structures in project finance today make them inherently complex to risk manage. In an article appearing in February on the Infrastructure Journal website, he says with proper, advanced tools, banks can achieve solid risk assessment with greater confidence and speed. more

6 February 2008

Protecting Commercial Real Estate Portfolios

In a recent article in Mortgage Risk magazine, Chris Marrison advocates cashflow simulation as the best solution for measuring risk across a commercial real estate portfolio. He points out the inherent limitations of the other main approaches such as a Value-at-Risk framework, standard cashflow modelling, and scorecards. more

30 January 2008

Using Property Derivatives in Real Estate Transactions

The use of property derivatives to hedge commercial real estate investments has grown substantially in the UK over the past five years. Indices developed at NCREIF and S&P may initialize their use in the US. However, investors need to be well aware of derivatives' benefits and dangers. more

9 November 2007

How to Prepare for a Crash

Historically a downturn in retail real estate has been echoed five quarters later in the commercial property market. In a recent technical article appearing in Institutional Investor's Real Estate Finance & Investment, Risk Integrated's CEO discusses methods to measure and restructure risk in a CRE portfolio. more

18 October 2007

Basel II and the Sub-Prime Blow?

Dr. Peter Andresén weighs the positive impact Basel II risk management procedures, already in place in most European banks, will have on their commercial real estate lending books. The Mortgage Finance Gazette, widely read in the U.K., features his discussion in their October 2007 issue. more

11 October 2007

Investigating the US Subprime Crash

In the October issue of the magazine from the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), Dr. Chris Marrison reviews the factors causing the recent collapse in the U.S. mortgage market and risk management strategies that should prevent reoccurrences in the future. more

20 August 2007

Emphasis on Stress Testing the Aggregate Mortgage Loan Book

The most recent issue of Mortgage Finance Gazette features a lengthy article by Risk Integrated's CEO, Dr. Chris Marrison emphasizing the importance of stress testing not just single loans, but the entire commercial real estate portfolio. more

1 June 2007

West Bromwich Building Society Implements Risk Integrated's System for CRE Portfolio Management

In a phased project West Bromwich now has in place an advanced risk system for managing its commercial real estate portfolio and for assessing complex new loans. Mike Nixon at West Bromwich is happy to have strengthened the quantitative analysis of their credit risk at a time of ever-increasing regulatory pressure. more

1 June 2007

Spreading the Risk

Risk Integrated features prominently in a lengthy article appearing in the operational risk section of Risk magazine this month discussing the installation of its ESP technology at Anglo Irish Bank. The technology allowed Anglo to use critical cash flow models enterprise-wide. more

29 March 2007

Running the Company on Spreadsheets

ComplianceExecutive.com featured an article today written by Risk Integrated CEO, Dr.  Chris Marrison, discussing the hazards associated with elevating spreadsheets to use for a company's material decision-making. more

12 March 2007

Risk Assessment for Project Finance Backed Securities

In a reprint of an article appearing 12 March on the website of Infrastructure Journal, Risk Integrated's Dr. Andresén reviews banks' increasing appetite for securitization of project finance loans. He discusses the problems in quantifying the credit risk in such inherently complex deal structures. more

7 March 2007

The Treasurer magazine recaps Risk Integrated's view on spreadsheet risk in article entitled "Spreading the Risk"

CTO Jafry discusses the difficulty and possible solutions to ensuring accurate spreadsheets, enterprise-wide, for all businesses. Read his two page article in the technology section of their March issue. more

7 February 2007

Project Finance Lenders Begin Implementing Basel II Regulations

In the recent issue of Project Finance Magazine, Chris Marrison explains how Basel II regulation is influencing the competitive dynamics at project finance banks from origination onwards. more

6 February 2007

Risk Integrated Offers Comprehensive Risk Analytics via Web

The consulting and technology firm has simplified access to their sophisticated risk modelling and risk analytics for commercial real estate or project finance. Their services are now available through an application service provider from any desktop. more

1 February 2007

Concerns about Concentration Risk in CRE Portfolios
at Small and Medium-sized Institutions

10 November 2006

Stress Testing Commercial Real Estate Loan Portfolios

Dr. Chris Marrison emphasizes the importance of stress testing for revealing the extent of concentration risk in commercial real estate lending. In an article first appearing in the publication, Real Estate Finance & Investment, Risk Integrated's CEO discusses how leading real estate banks model their risks and structure their portfolios by using "What if?" analysis. more

November 2006

Spreadsheets: A Tool You Can Trust?

For more than two decades, spreadsheets have been the tool of choice for financial services firms. But do they contain hidden dangers? The November issue of Oprisk & Compliance magazine reports on the Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform (ESP) product from Risk Integrated. ESP helps firms transform these common business tools into actual applications, eliminating a major source of spreadsheet risk. more

November 2006

Spreadsheets: The Good, the Bad and the Risky

Spreadsheet risk has become a worldwide epidemic not only for applications in the financial services industries but also in government and medicine. In the online magazine, Financial Places, Dr. Yusuf Jafry clarifies that with their supreme flexibility, spreadsheets are no longer viewed as prototypes to be displaced as soon as proper systems are rolled out. Appropriate management products provided by software technology firms are elevating spreadsheets to solid enterprise-level applications. more

September 2006

Comment and Personal Opinion

In the September issue of STP Magazine, Risk Integrated's Chief Technical Officer, Dr. Yusuf Jafry, summarizes his concerns about the seriousness of unregulated spreadsheets as banking and other industries rely on them more than just as temporary prototypes. more

12 September 2006

Basel II - The Basic Equation

In the article first printed in Infrastructure Journal in September 2006, Risk Integrated's Chris Marrison clarifies why the project finance departments at the largest, diversified banks are now pushing hard for the funding advantages attainable by achieving advanced Basel II compliance. more

6 September 2006

Use of Risk Measurement Models in Specialised Finance

Chris Marrison, founder and chief executive of Risk Integrated discusses measuring and mitigating risk in project finance deals on Infrastructure Journal Online (www.ijonline.com). He describes in detail the benefits of using simulation models over traditional cash flow models for calculating capital requirements for Basel II compliance. more

10 August 2006

CEO Chris Marrison is interviewed on finextra.com

Chris Marrison, founder and chief executive of Risk Integrated talks about his shift from mission critical risk control in the aerospace industry to a career in high finance. more

11 July 2006

Risk Integrated pioneers new solution to mitigate spreadsheet risk for complex financial calculations

In the article appearing in the 11 July 2006 issue of FX&MM, CEO Chris Marrison speaks about the increases in regulatory pressure forcing companies to more closely examine the internal use of spreadsheets. more

6 July 2006

Risk Integrated CTO, Dr. Yusuf Jafry, presents at the 2006 EuSpRIG conference

Jafry presents Risk Integrated's newest product, the Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform (ESP), at the 2006 conference of the European Spreadsheet Risk Interest Group at Cambridge University, UK. The conference is hailed as the "best ever" held by EuSpRIG. Please review a concise conference summary on the EuSpRIG website or Dr. Jafry's complete paper.

6 July 2006

CEO Marrison discusses tackling the 'Fat finger syndrome'

The Oprisk & Compliance issue of 6 July 2006 features Risk Integrated's CEO, Dr. Chris Marrison, in an article about spreadsheet risk and our company's solution for it, the Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform (ESP). more

28 June 2006

Risk Integrated's Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform is profiled in Real Estate Weekly

In an article published in the 28 June 06 issue of Real Estate Weekly, Risk Integrated's new solution for the near elimination of spreadsheet risk is discussed. more

26 June 2006

CTO Yusuf Jafry quoted in Global Investment Technology journal discussing IT tacks for handling operational risk

This article first appeared in the 26 June 06 issue of Global Investment Technology which covers strategic intelligence for the securities and investment industries. more

19 June 2006

Risk Integrated's ESP discussed in recent issue of Securities Industry News

In the 19 June 06 article entitled "Makeover for Microsoft Excel: Spreadsheet Upgrade Plus High-Performance Cluster Touted as Trading's Future," Chris Marrison discusses Risk Integrated's solution to spreadsheet risk, our Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform. more

30 May 2006

Risk Integrated pioneers new solution to mitigate spreadsheet risk

Risk Integrated, a consulting firm focusing on risk measurement for specialized finance, today announced a new solution for the effective management of spreadsheet risk. The company's Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform (ESP) follows client demands for a sophisticated system that focuses on current spreadsheet risk and regulatory requirements. more

26 May 2006

"The Effect of Basel II on Project Finance." Chris Marrison, Risk Integrated's CEO, compares the cost of funds before and after Basel II

This article first appeared in Infrastructure Journal, May 2006 (www.ijonline.com). Marrison believes the importance and relevance of Basel II should be obvious to any business that considers profitability to be linked to cost of funds and pricing of capital. more

26 May 2006

"Eliminating Harmful Spreadsheet Risk." Yusuf Jafry, Risk Integrated's Chief Technical Officer, discusses how operational risk due to spreadsheet errors is all too common

This article first appeared in Global Risk Regulator, May 2006 (www.globalriskregulator.com). Jafry says Risk Integrated has a solution for the problem of spreadsheet risk in its new product, Enterprise Spreadsheet Platform (ESP). ESP provides spreadsheet management whereby only designated, qualified superusers can manipulate the business logic in complex spreadsheets used by banks to make material decisions. more

31 March 2006

"In Perfect Accord?" Risk Integrated's CEO discusses Basel II implications

This article first appeared in Financial-i, March 2006 (www.financial-i.com). Dr. Chris Marrison cautions that banks with less sophisticated risk measurement systems will be left out in the cold as the bigger banks can identify the less risky deals. more

24 February 2006

Risk Integrated builds pipeline reporting tools into the SFS

An international bank with over E40 Bn of commercial real estate assets has engaged Risk Integrated to enhance the SFS to provide customized pipeline and portfolio management reports.

24 February 2006

World Bank engages Risk Integrated to build project finance models

The World Bank has engaged Risk Integrated to build risk models for public private partnerships for the electricity sector.

6 February 2006

Risk Integrated signs new maintenance contracts for 2006

Two banks who are major players in commercial real estate in Europe and internationally have renewed their maintenance contracts for 2006 with Risk Integrated. This reflects our ongoing commitment to support our clients' use of the SFS.

21 October 2005

Risk Integrated assists World Bank on Basel II Implementation

Risk Integrated is assisting the World Bank to train its personnel on the implementation of Basel II. The World Bank is responsible for advising the supervisors of member countries’ banks and regulators on Basel II compliance. They are using Risk Integrated's training capabilities and its expertize in risk management.

Risk Integrated Delivers Enterprise Grading System to
Leading International Real-Estate Bank

Risk Integrated has successfully completed delivery of the Specialized Finance System for Commercial Real Estate (SFS-CRE) to a leading player in the global commercial real estate market. The SFS-CRE, Risk Integrated's enterprise-level credit grading system, provides lenders and managers in all branches of the bank (London, New York, Tokyo, Stuttgart, etc.) with web-based Advanced-Level Basel II-compliant risk metrics for their entire global portfolio of investment and development property deals.

Risk Integrated to assist World Bank on African Infrastructure Projects

Risk Integrated has been asked by the World Bank to give technical assistance in promoting mechanisms to finance infrastructure projects in Africa . Risk Integrated will use its expertise in structuring to allocate risks to the local and international parties who are best placed to accept them.

Risk Integrated Receives Two New Orders for SFS Enterprise Grading System from Leading International Real-Estate Banks

Risk Integrated has received two new orders for the Specialized Finance System for Commercial Real Estate (SFS-CRE) from leading global players in the commercial real estate market. The SFS-CRE, Risk Integrated's enterprise-level credit grading system, provides lenders and managers in all branches of each bank with Advanced-Level Basel II-compliant risk metrics (PD, LGD) for their entire global portfolios of investment and development property deals.

Risk Integrated to Provide Services to United States Federal Reserve

Risk Integrated has been asked to provide services to the United States Federal Reserve.