SimCorp, MSCI Launch Interface for Data, Analytics

Investment management software and services provider SimCorp and risk analytics software and services provider MSCI have created a direct link between their respective position-holding and risk management platforms, to reduce the complexity and risk involved when their mutual customers transfer data and analytics between the two systems.

The new interface makes it simpler for mutual clients to load SimCorp Dimension holdings into MSCI RiskManager and MSCI RiskManager risk analytics into SimCorp Dimension. A future connection to MSCI's BarraOne product is also planned.

SimCorp has a template of the data that MSCI needs for its risk analytics, including ISINs, SEDOLs and other market identifiers. When position-holding details have been reconciled in SimCorp Dimension, all of the necessary data is collected and transferred to MSCI. The results of MSCI's risk analysis are then returned directly to SimCorp Dimension, where it will be available on screen and saved in a database.

Else Braathen, SimCorp's Copenhagen-based domain manager, risk management, says SimCorp and MSCI have at least 30 common clients, many of whom have built their own interfaces between the two companies' systems. She says some of these may continue to use their own interfaces, but believes others will adopt the new interface, which will make it easier to manage changes, such as entry into a new market or the addition of a new instrument type.

"One thing every client hates is interfacing," says Braathen. "It is never fun; it is always filled with operational effort; there is always a lot of risk in doing it. That is just a fact of life. If you have two systems that need to communicate about something as difficult as describing your positions in order to calculate very complex risk models on top of it, you really need to provide a lot of data and you have got to make sure it is absolutely correct."