Independent Valuation and Risk Services Limited (“IVRS), a subsidiary of Lombard Risk Management plc and a market leader in providing independent valuations of derivatives and hard to value securities for banks and investment funds, and CDO2 Solutions Limited (CDO2) whose CDOSheet® is a market-leading tool for pricing and risk analysis for structured credit derivatives, are pleased to announce that they have entered into a strategic alliance under which IVRS will have exclusive access to CDOSheet® to provide independent valuations of client positions in CDO tranches and CDO squared structures.
IVRS is further pleased to announce that it has appointed Dr. Nicholas Stewart as head of Structured Credit Products. Stewart, who has a quantitative analysis background, was previously Head of Product Development at Tamesis Limited (formerly Summit Financial Systems Limited) and product specialist for credit derivatives for Patsystems plc following its acquisition of Tamesis in 2005. Prior to this he spent three years in quantitative analysis in Deutsche Bank, ’s Global Relative Group.
Commenting on the alliance:
Ian Hopkins, managing director of IVRS, said “We are delighted to be formalizing our working relationship with CDO2, and that Nick Stewart is joining us to accelerate our activities in this fascinating and growing sector. Our activities to date have shown that there is a very clear need across the market for a source of fast and accurate valuations of these complex structures, and the valuation models must have the flexibility to deal with the many unique features that we encounter. Adding CDO2’s and Nick Stewart’s skills, experience and insights into these products to our existing capabilities will bring real added benefits to our clients whose positions and portfolios we value.”
Gary Kendall, founder and owner of CDO2 said “We are very impressed by IVRS’ approach to delivering independent valuations for client portfolios and are delighted to be working with them. Their market knowledge and expertise, combined with the market data available to them, gives their independent valuation service the same capabilities for comprehensive pricing and risk analysis of structured credit portfolios as any of our customers who run CDOSheet® in-house."
