Analytics Firm SAS Acquires Risk Management Specialist

Artificial intelligence and analytics provider SAS has acquired specialist risk management solutions provider Kamakura Corporation.

North Carolina-headquartered SAS said in a statement announcing the acquisition that it aimed to deliver integrated risk solutions related to asset and liability management (ALM) for banks, insurers and other financial services companies.

Kamakura provides software and risk management data solutions for the banking and insurance sectors through two offerings: Kamakura Risk Manager (KRM) and Kamakura Risk Information Services (KRIS).

KRM offers transaction-level valuation, simulation, stress testing and cashflow analysis, while KRIS provides credit risk data and analytics to enable companies to forecast credit spreads and calculate default probabilities based on proprietary models.

Kamakura’s leadership team — including executives Don van Deventer, chairman and CEO, and Robert Jarrow, research director — will join SAS as part of the acquisition, alongside other employees and contractors.

SAS said the risk management had risen in importance in recent months due to the conflict in Ukraine, disrupted supply chains, rising inflation, and the growing threat of economic recession.

Jim Goodnight, SAS co-founder and CEO, explained that the acquisition “signals our intent to advance market-changing risk solutions to solve the most pressing challenges our financial services customers face”.

He added: “We foresee that the resulting strength of SAS technology, paired with Kamakura’s risk analytics and credit models, will prove far greater than the sum of its parts.”

Kamakura’s capabilities include support for Current Expected Credit Loss models, ALM, and interest rate and liquidity risk management. A growing number of banks have been employing external services providers to manage CECL and other risk models in recent months in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.