Global retail banks are expected to spend $9 billion on business intelligence technology by 2012, with investments on operational risk technology poised to witness a 12 percent average annual increase from $754 million in 2007 to over $1 billion in 2010, according to independent market analyst Datamonitor. In the Middle East, financial institutions are also gaining strength in the technological front, as evident in the 15 percent increase in the sector's IT investment, which is set to reach $1.8 billion in 2008. Highlighting the fast-rising trend in the adoption of high-end IT solutions within the financial market, the Chartis Research “Credit Risk Management Systems 2008” report has ranked the “SAS Credit Risk Management for Banking” as the top retail banking solution globally. The report examined the demand and supply side of the market for credit risk management systems and covered key market and regulatory requirements, implementation challenges and the competitive landscape. As a leader in business intelligence and analytical software and services, SAS has earned considerable praise for its credit risk management solution, particularly for the product's data management capabilities, applications that facilitate Basel II compliance and flexible business analytics functions. “The growing regional demand and need for financial analysis, customer intelligence systems, more formalized performance and risk management in order to maximize the expanding financial market continues to fuel the popularity of our solutions among leading banking organizations,” said Harry Pretorius, Business Development director and head of the Regional Risk Practice, SAS - MEA & Pakistan. “SAS as a leader in both Chartis credit risk management and operational risk management reports underscores the need for financial institutions to operate integrated advanced risk analytics, reporting/dashboard and data management across their business lines. Being recognized as a leader in risk management technologies within this highly dynamic market by a trusted analytics authority such as Chartis Research is truly an honor.” SAS Credit Risk Management for Banking, which includes SAS Credit Scoring for Banking, integrates data aggregation, advanced analytics and reporting within a transparent framework to provide an open, extensible environment with complete capabilities for retail credit scoring, and corporate credit rating extending into credit portfolio risk management. The solution is transparent and auditable, facilitating supervisory review, both internally and by regulators, as required by Basel II and other regulations. Further, the underlying credit risk data model helps firms consolidate credit data from disparate sources and supports faster implementation. The framework also allows the changing of internal calculations as regulations are amended or additional rules are added. “Our solutions' outstanding ability to facilitate regulatory compliance is being widely appreciated by financial services companies, who seek to pass Basel II and other legal and operational requirements. Although mostly taken up by financial services institutions, the solutions are now more widely looked at from other industry sectors for enterprise risk management purposes. We are continuously working towards aiding more institutions by providing them with end-to-end solutions that monitor and measure risk and give a more sophisticated and consolidated picture of risk exposure across all divisions of their organization,” Pretorius said. Prior to this year's award, SAS has been ranked as the leader for three consecutive years by Chartis Research in its “Operational Risk Management Systems” report from 2005 to 2007, positioning its “SAS OpRisk Management” in the top spot for “completeness of offering” and “market share potential.” At present, more than 200 global financial services institutions use SAS' credit risk and operational risk management solutions, including Bankdata (Denmark), BB&T (US), Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Volkskreditbank AG (Austria), Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne (France), Commerzbank and HypoVereinsbank (Germany), Grupo Santander (Spain), HSBC and Northern Rock (UK), Kookmin Bank and Woori Bank (Korea), Landsbanki (Iceland), and Vseobecna Uverova Banka (Slovakia). __
