With SAS, Concept Capital offers new, hosted portfolio analytics and risk management portal to the hedge fund market

CARY, NC. Risk management remains a hot topic for all financial services firms. Introduction of more stringent requirements, especially in the investment management industry, calls for hedge funds to access more powerful analytics to effectively measure portfolio risk, typically a difficult task with significant fixed costs. To meet this market need, Concept Capital, an institutional broker and total solutions provider to the investment management industry, has partnered with SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services. As a result of the collaboration, Concept Capital will offer a full suite of analytics that will provide integrated, multicustodial risk and performance reporting to investment managers, family offices and investors by providing simple yet powerful portfolio analytics and risk intelligence. With SAS risk management software, Concept Capital will significantly expand the capabilities of its flagship product, CONCEPTONE™, to bring a unique product to the marketplace.

“We believe there is a huge opportunity to bring an integrated solution to the market that will combine portfolio analytics and advanced risk management capabilities to the investment management and hedge fund space,” said Michael Rosen, Managing Director at Concept Capital. “This solution will give investors increased confidence in receiving risk reports that will be produced by an independent third party using industry-leading software from SAS.”

Added Dan Connell, Project Manager at Concept Capital, who will be driving the initiative, “With the heightened requirements on risk reporting, security pricing and portfolio transparency that are now pervasive in the industry, it is critical that hedge fund managers have access to the necessary tools. By teaming with SAS, a leader in risk management software, CONCEPTONE will be meeting this demand.”

With SAS, Concept Capital will offer a hosted portfolio analytics and risk management portal to the hedge fund market. The solution includes a client Web portal with access to customized risk reports and interactive analytics that will permit a multitude of views – including value at risk (VaR), factor analysis, customized stress testing, profit and loss (P&L) time-series analysis, performance attribution and measurement, and production of ex-post risk indicators coupled with more traditional portfolio appraisal reports – all on a multicustodial basis.

“With SAS, CONCEPTONE will be able to deliver a high level of auditable risk intelligence to clients that are now a requirement in today’s market,” said David Wallace, Global Financial Services Marketing Manager for SAS. “Hedge fund managers will now be able to move beyond ‘black box’ analytics to have fine-grained control of their risk analysis. Through this partnership with Concept Capital, SAS continues to help reshape the capital markets’ risk practices in achieving a strong and stable recovery.”

SAS risk management software has garnered many accolades this past year. In November, SAS was ranked the top company in Chartis Research’s RiskTech100 TM . SAS placed in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services by Gartner Inc. in September. Also, in July 2009, Chartis ranked SAS as the leader in its Credit Risk Management Systems 2009 report for the third straight year; and for a fifth straight year, SAS was first in Chartis Research’s Operational Risk Management Systems 2009 report in June.