Finnish retail bank Aktia is extending its use of SunGard’s Ambit risk and performance management solutions with the addition of Ambit Capital Management. The capital management application will replace a legacy vendor system, automate previously manual processes and deliver greater transparency and visibility of capital across the bank’s predominantly retail lending business.
Aktia already uses SunGard Ambit Asset and Liability Management, Liquidity Risk Management, Funds Transfer Pricing and Earnings at Risk, but looked at other capital management solution vendors before selecting SunGard.
According to Ville Ahonen, credit risk manager at Aktia, “There were many reasons for selecting Ambit Capital Management. The solution is very transparent as all calculation rules are specified and can be edited. Regulatory capital calculations require a lot of logic and this needs to be transparent so that we can validate the calculations. Good transparency also means we can drill down into portfolios to discover exposures that require large regulatory capital. The software has a good user interface, it fits well with in-house reporting based on a Microsoft SQL server, and the SunGard consultants we are implementing the solution with are knowledgeable.”
The bank is in the process of migrating from the standard approach to capital requirements to the internal ratings based approach and will wait for regulatory approval to use the internal ratings approach before moving into production with Ambit Capital Management to meet the requirements of Basel II and later Basel III. Meantime, the software is live and being used to calculate capital requirements for internal use in parallel with the legacy system.
Aktia will be able to eliminate manual intervention from capital management using the SunGard solution, in turn lowering the maintenance costs of the bank’s capital management system and producing more efficient reporting.
Magnus Weurlander, chief risk officer at Aktia, concludes: “Having used SunGard’s solutions for the past decade, Aktia has first-hand experience of the benefits that Ambit can provide. SunGard’s experience in risk management in Finland offers the right expertise to help us address both local regulatory requirements and international legislation such as Basel III. Ambit Capital Management is a strategic investment for Aktia that will help our compliance efforts both now and in the future, while also helping to reduce operating costs.”
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