Users can define segments by currency, sector, duration or maturity, and then customise reports using their own choice of these factors, to align attribution more closely with an investment strategy.

"This new 'top-down' approach offers portfolio managers the flexibility to choose an attribution analysis that mirrors his or her particular investment style," explains CMS BondEdge senior vice president and product manager, Lou Gehring. "We've seen significant interest in this type of attribution approach from high yield portfolio managers, as well as from the European market, and are excited to be able to offer BondEdge clients the option to employ either approach or both, as warranted."

Global Investment Technology, October 11, 2004
Custodians, Third-Party Providers Compete to Capture Performance Measurement Niche
New York - Northern Trust, one of the largest global custodians, serves all market segments, including plan sponsors, fund managers and mutual fund companies. According to Lori Kazich, Senior Vice President of Investment Risk and Analytical services at Northern Trust, strengths of its offering include: more than 100 professionals serving performance measurement clients worldwide, portal-based technology, internal and external expertise, and a broad range of products and services, from performance measurement to risk management services. "Our primary performance engine does a lot of the calculations, pumping out proprietary results," says Kazich. "We also leverage third-party packages like Barra's Total Risk system and, for fixed-income, CMS BondEdge. We believe in strong partnerships with third-party providers who have expertise in particular areas, including index providers. With expertise from third-party providers, there is no need for us to re-invent the wheel."

Global Investment Technology, April 12, 2004
Market Evolution Pushes Vendors to Deliver More Comprehensive Portfolio Analysis Tools
New York - More comprehensive reporting, performance evaluation, risk assessment and transaction evaluation capabilities are among the functions that fixed-income portfolio managers most desire from the portfolio analytics systems available to them, CMS BondEdge... are some of the systems providers whose clients are pointing to these functions as the ones most needed to meet the challenges of the current environment.

Hedge Fund & Investment Technology, January 2004
PM&A Systems on the Rise, says TowerGroup Report
Boston- Buy-side firms will increase spending on performance measurement and attribution (PM&A) software and services to $455 million in 2006 from $355 million in 2003 due to greater reporting requirements from clients and demands for more functionality by portfolio managers and analysts.

"There's really no dominant analytics in the market," Little-Gill says. "Solutions out there are mostly equity-centric, but now that there's an increased interest in the fixed-income market space, we're ending up with very fragmented solutions."

"That's why you have people using CMS BondEdge, Lehman, and Solomon analytics for fixed-income attribution, but for client reporting purposes they'll use an equities system that's been retrofitted to support fixed income," he adds.

Wall Street and Technology, July 24, 2003
Risk Management Briefs
CMS BondEdge, a provider of fixed-income analytics, will make a quantitative rating system available from Audit Integrity, LLC, through the BondEdge system, that helps investors evaluate a firm's financial accounting and governance practices. Using a statistical method, Audit Integrity processes publicly available corporate-documents such as SEC filings, litigations, and regulations releases, and then condenses this information not an accounting and governance ranking score (AGR). Random Walk Computing, Inc. has selected Volante Designer from Volante Technologies in a combined services and software offering to help financial firms migrate from SWIFT MT100 to MT 103 message format in time for the upcoming November 2003 deadline. The solution provides message recognition and deconstruction, internal routing, integration with back-end applications, and deployment on any infrastructure of the client's choice.

Risk.net, July 24, 2003
CMS BondEdge adopts Audit Integrity's surveillance tool for
accounting anomalies
CMS BondEdge, a provider of fixed-income portfolio analytics, has adopted Audit Integrity's quantitative rating system, which helps evaluate a firm's financial accounting and governance practices.

In an agreement reached this week, CMS BondEdge has become the first client to adopt the newly launched financial analytics service, which processes publicly available corporate documents such as SEC filings, litigations, and regulations.

The system condenses this information into an accounting and governance ranking score (AGR), ranging from very aggressive to conservative. AGR scores are determined by comparing selected accounting and governance measures of a company to the profiles of firms found in violation of SEC and other regulatory rulings.

Audit Integrity launched the financial analytics service on July 16, 2003. The subscription-based service was developed for corporate boards, audit committees, chief financial officers and others in the financial community to augment and assure the accuracy of a firm's financial disclosures. CMS BondEdge intends to fully implement the system by the end of the month.

Laurie Adami, president of CMS BondEdge, said: "Combining the AGR system of assessing accounting and governance practice with the analysis of default and spread risk already available in BondEdge provides corporate bond-holders with a comprehensive assessment of their credit risk profile."

Audit Integrity is a US institutional-grade financial analytics service that provides companies with quarterly accounting and governance reports to assure the accuracy of their financial disclosures.

InvestmentNews, July 2003
A Man on a (Governance) Mission
Despite the collapses and publicity over Enron Corp., WorldCom, Inc. and others, Mr. James Kaplan perceived an overall lack of effort to shore up corporate governance. "We were talking about it, but no one was taking any overt action to address it."

Hence the creation of his new company, Los Angeles-based Audit Integrity LLC., of which Mr. Kaplan is chairman and chief executive. Audit Integrity sells quarterly reports-for $1,500 to $70,000- rating companies on their corporate accounting and governance. It looks for potential accounting irregularities at companies ranging from conservative to very aggressive in their policies.

Mr. Kaplan is no stranger to launching big projects. In 1979, he was a founding partner of Capital Management Sciences, a leader in selling analytic and quantitative tools to bond portfolio managers. He also helped launch CBS MarketWatch. "Jim was quite visionary for the tool he developed," says Laurie Adami, president and CEO of Mr. Kaplan's former firm, now CMS BondEdge, a Santa Monica, Calif., subsidiary of Interactive Data Corp. in Bedford, Mass. She worked with Mr. Kaplan from 1984 until he left the firm in 1999.

Global Investment Technology, July 2003
Investment Managers Seeking New Tools For Performance Measurement,
Risk Analysis
Vendors serving the asset management community report that fixed-income managers and their pension fund clients are looking to put performance measurement and risk analysis on par with their equities portfolios. They are demanding new tools with comparable functionality, but their efforts are being stymied by divergent streams of analysis that measure risks and returns of stocks and bonds. Compounding the challenge is the comparitive lack of fixed income data. Service providers addressing analysis and attribution include...CMS BondEdge...

Wall Street & Technology, June 2003
A Model for Success
Loomis, Sayles & Company, an investment firm managing $54.8 billion in assets of institutional, high-net-worth and mutual-fund clients, demonstrates the advantages of modeling within its fixed-income business. Loomis utilizes CMS BondEdge to measure potential return and risk on its portfolios on a stand-alone basis, as well as compared to industry and customized benchmarks.

Kevin Kenyon, a quantitative analyst in the core bond group based in Chicago, says that all of Loomis' fixed-income portfolios are maintained on BondEdge. "With so many companies blowing up in 2002, portfolio managers are becoming acutely aware of where the risks are," he explains. "Our portfolio managers use BondEdge to maintain portfolios and understand allocations and risks."

Finextra.com, November 27, 2002
FT Interactive Data Adds Credit Risk Reporting to BondEdge Platform
FT Interactive Data has integrated RiskMetrics' CreditGrades product with its fixed income portfolio analytics platform BondEdge to provide its clients with credit risk reports.

The new module, which combines RiskMetrics' theoretical credit default spreads and probabilities data with recent pricing information from BondEdge, allows users to access reports indicating the default risk for each bond.

FT Interactive Data says the integrated system will provide users with a clearer picture of the risks inherent in their portfolios.

Teri Geske, senior vice president, product development, BondEdge, comments: "We've created a tool set which not only allows clients to monitor potential credit risk, but to understand fully the rationale behind that assessment as well."

Risk News, November 27, 2002
FT Interactive Data Adds CreditGrades to BondEdge
FT Interactive Data, a provider of securities prices and analytical software, has combined credit risk measurement tools from software provider RiskMetrics to its flagship fixed-income portfolio analysis tool, BondEdge.

The Massachusetts-based company, a unit of UK media conglomerate Pearson, said RiskMetrics' CreditGrades product will help managers more effectively evaluate credit risk at the individual security level. CreditGrades uses an equity-based firm-value model (a Merton model) for assessing credit quality. It produces indicative credit spreads for North American and European public companies.

"The synthesis of RiskMetrics' theoretical model output with actual market trends provided by BondEdge affords clients a more balanced view of their credit risk profile," said Teri Geske, senior vice-president of product development for BondEdge, which is licensing CreditGrades from RiskMetrics.

Investment & Pensions Europe, October 2002
The number of fixed income trading systems in the market has shrunk dramatically since the dot.com boom
In terms of technology to access these markets, and/or to perform pre-and post-trade deal and portfolio analysis, some of the platforms or associated companies provide products, most notably Bloomberg with its all-in-one data/analytics/trading terminal, and Instinet through its association with Reuters which has a number of applications such as its Kondor+ trading systems and KVar+ risk management system. Meanwhile, there are number of specialized fixed income systems, such as BondEdge from FT Interactive Data and Axiom from Wilshire Associates, and multi-asset class systems with sophisticated facilities for fixed income such as the Charles River Trading System from Charles River Development and the PAM system from Princeton Financial Systems.

The latest version of BondEdge, released in August, features over 100 standard reports and allows users to customize their reports and their distribution. This enables firms that have many portfolios, each with many positions, to automate the production of reports against several benchmarks if required, and to output these as hardcopy or in a number of different computer formats, including standard Web formats for distribution on the internet or internal networks, says Lou Gehring, product manager of BondEdge from London-based FT Interactive Data.

Inside Market Data, September 6, 2002
FTID Rolls Outs BondEdge 4.7
FT Interactive Data, a provider of securities prices and analytical software, has launched BondEdge 4.7 with new coverage of option prices on US Treasury futures, Japanese government bond futures, US agency and corporate step-up bonds, US T-bills and agency discount notes as well as daily credit rating updates from rating agency Moody's for US and non-US corporate bonds. Coverage of corporate floating rate notes and commercial mortgage-backed securities has been improved. In addition, users can now organize, modify and process portfolios and reports from one screen.

STP Magazine, September 2002
Digging Out the Detail
The ideal for investment managers is now to implement integrated performance measurement and attribution across all asset classes. Currently the best rated fixed income attribution solutions are those from Wilshire and BondEdge, which dominates the US Market.

Risk News, August 29, 2002
FT Interactive Data Expands BondEdge Derivatives Coverage
FT Interactive Data, a provider of securities prices and analytical software, has expanded the number of derivatives prices it reports with the latest version of its fixed-income portfolio analysis tool. The Massachusetts-based company, a unit of UK media conglomerate Pearson, said it has added coverage of option prices on US Treasury futures, Japanese government bond futures, US agency and corporate step-up bonds, US T-bills and agency discount notes to BondEdge, its flagship product. Daily credit rating updates from rating agency Moody's for US and non-US corporate bonds have also been added. FT Interactive Data said this will help managers better monitor their portfolio's credit profile. Below are excerpts from recent press mentions for CMS BondEdge, as seen in various financial trade publications.

STPforum.com, June 24, 2002
CMS BondEdge Puts the PRO into BondEdge
BondEdge, a fixed income portfolio analytics solution, offers more than 100 standard reports plus an unlimited amount of customized reports. The new BondEdge PRO feature will allow clients to create and save an unlimited number of portfolio combinations and report settings and then organize them from a single screen. With this, portfolio reporting can now be automated and exported into a variety of forms including Excel, XML and HTML for web posting.

eFinancial News, June 24, 2002
New BondEdge Solution Automates Portfolio Reporting
BondEdge Portfolio Report Organizer (BondEdge PRO) has been designed for institutions managing or advising on multiple portfolios and enables users to create portfolio settings from a single screen. Functionality includes the ability to tie a portfolio to a particular index, so that every time a particular report or set of reports are run, the index is automatically associated with them. Portfolios can be organized and save into folders based on any user-defined criteria, such as weekly, monthly and quarterly reports.

P&I Daily, June 17, 2002
CMS BondEdge Will Launch CMO/ABS Analyzer
CMS BondEdge will launch CMO/ABS Analyzer, a web-based service with detailed information, analytics and histories on collateralized mortgage obligations, asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The service, with information on more than 50,000 tranches, will be fee based.

Tower Group, June 17, 2002
The Future of Buy-Side Portfolio Risk Management:
Less Revolution and More Evolution
An independent research firm in Boston lists CMS BondEdge as one of a select group of leading pre-trade fixed income analytics vendors.

Global Investment Technology, June 10, 2002
New Solutions Keep Up with Emerging Client Needs
CMS BondEdge has released version 4.6 of BondEdge, its fixed-income portfolio analytics system. A new model for tracking-error analysis has been added to the product, the global analytics offering has been broadened, processing speeds throughout the system have been enhanced, and bond modeling capabilities have been expanded to include Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). Global enhancements to BondEdge version 4.6 include the ability to perform portfolio total return simulations on a global scenario reporting, which includes risk exposure to country and currency risk before and after suggested trades.

Securities Industry News, April 2002
Advent Boosts Axys Function with CMS BondEdge Deal
The partnership offers Advent's clients use of BondEdge portfolio analytical reports. Advent clients subscribing to these reports via Axys can transfer their portfolio holdings to CMS BondEdge using either the Internet or FTP (File Transfer Protocol), the firms said in a statement. Analytics-focused providers further slice-up the vendor pie by offering tools that provide opotion-adjusted risk measures, benchmark comparisons and total return simulations - functionality that pure accounting systems are sometimes not equipped to handle, according to experts. Advent already offers such tools in Browser Reporting and other modules, but sought to diversify in the deal. The added reports are designed for and available to Advent clients managing limited fixed-in-come assets who want to take advantage of some of the analytical reporting capabilities offered in BondEdge, the firms said.

Buyside IT, April 2002
BondEdge Updates and Wins First European Clients
BondEdge has launched version 4.6 of BondEdge, its buy-side fixed income analytics product last month. BondEdge 4.6 brings additional functionalities to both its core clients in North America and its new target base of European firms. BondEdge, known in the US as CMS BondEdge, is also planning to release version 4.7 in late summer. BondEdge's first European clients, two Lond-based investment management firms, installed the system in mid-February. Officials decline to specify how many people will be using the product at these firms but say that typical US deals see from one to six users per firm.

Inside Market Data, March 11, 2002
FT Interactive Data Updates BondEdge
BondEdge has officially released BondEdge 4.6. The latest version of the fixed income portfolio analytics solution features a new model for tracking error analysis, a wider global analytics offering and faster processing. The next version 4.7, will be released in August. It will add BondEdge PRO - a portfolio reporting orgainzer that allows users to select any combination of a portfolio and access the related reports. This is particularly useful for financial professionals with hundreds of clients and those at pension plan managers and institutions, who often need to create books of reports either quarterly or monthly.

www.FinancialMarketsIT.com, March 7, 2002
BondEdge has released version 4.6, its fixed income portfolio analytics software featuring improvements for its North American users as well as Europeans. In addition to a new model for tracking error analysis, the global analytics module has been broadened, and processing speeds improved. Bond modelling capabilities have been expanded to accommodate Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. Other enhancements include the ability to perform total return simulations on a global portfolio, where each security in the portfolio is 'shocked' against the appropriate corresponding government yield curve, and 'what-if reporting', which now includes risk exposure to country and curreny risk.

Euroweek, February 22, 2002
Better Late Than Never for ISMA Information
While dealers are being offered alternative outlets for their quotes, rival data suppliers are leveraging off their databases to supply expanded, vertically linked analytics tools. BondEdge, for example, the portfolio analytics tools, is being launched into the European market this year.

Investment & Pensions Europe, February, 2002
Software Houses Target Pensions
A number of analytics specialists upgraded their software over the past 12 months. Following its take over by Financial Times Interactive Data, Los Angeles-based CMS BondEdge made a number of enhancements to its BondEdge fixed income portfolio analysis system for its introduction to the UK. New features include the ability to classify portfolio holdings as either domestic or foreign based on the portfolio's base currency and support for a number of new securities and global indexes such as German bunds and UK gilts. The company plans a number of further enhancements for this year.

Risk Magazine, January 2002
Software Survey 2002
Analytics suppliers must also ensure their models reflect the new economic realities, warns Teri Geske, senior vice president at Los Angeles-based fixed-income portfolio analytics supplier CMS BondEdge.

"The [US Federal Reserve's] unprecedented rate cuts post-September 11 also affect fixed-income risk managers and software developers," says Geske. "As interest rates have declined to near-historic lows, there is the increasing probability that term structure models, Monte Carlo-based interest rate simulations and other pricing algorithms will cause future cashflows to be discounted at negative interest rates. While one may debate the theoretical validity of such computations, software vendors may have error checks designed to prevent this from occuring. Thus; models that may have been coded years ago will have to be examined for appropriateness in today's environment."

Pensions & Investments, November 26, 2001
CMS BondEdge launched the European version of its fixed-income analytics system. In addition to its established reporting and analysis capabilities, BondEdge will offer global performance attribution analysis. BondEdge clients will have access to a global database of 50,000 securities, including sovereigns, supranationals and futures. The system provides more than 20 benchmark government yield curves and more than 40 currencies, updated daily from FT Interactive Data.

Straight Through Processing (STP), November 2001
BondEdge Debuts in Europe
BondEdge has launched a European version of its fixed income portfolio analytics system BondEdge. The platform used in the US institutional market for more than 20 years, offers reporting tools and analyses including benchmark comparisons and performance attribution - for diversified fixed income portfolios. Teri Geske, senior vice president of product development and marketing for BondEdge, says the firm spent the past 12 months developing the European version based on feedback from portfolio managers across the continent.

One of the key features of the system is performance attribution analysis, according to Lou Gehring, senior vice president at BondEdge; explaining the sources of portfolio returns in terms of income, interst rate moves, sector and quality allocations, individual security selection and currency effects. "Everybody is interested in portfolio attribution, especially when the bond market is not doing so well," says Gehring.

Operations Management, June 2001
L.A. Shop Ramps BondEdge with Euro in Mind
Los Angeles-based Capital Management Sciences plans to roll out June 30 an upgrade to its BondEdge software designed to analyze credit risk. The emergence of the euro zone has led to an increased transfer away from currency risk toward credit risk, marking a need for the ability to measure how and why portfolios perform, said Lou Gehring, senior vice president for Capital Management Sciences.

Pensions Management, November 1, 2001
BondEdge Launched in Europe
BondEdge has now launched in Europe. BondEdge is a fixed income portfolio analytics system that has been available in the US institutional market for more than 20 years.

Financial Times
BondEdge Moves into Europe, October 18, 2001
BondEdge launches its bond analysis services in Europe, targeted at European fund managers. With an emphasis on fixed income for over twenty years, BondEdge holds an edge over many of its competitors who cater primarily to equity buyers. BondEdge also hopes to benefit from the current market trend towards more active portfolio management against benchmarks.

www.ft.com, October 9 2001
BondEdge Launched in Europe
BondEdge, a fixed income portfolio analytics system, launched in Europe. BondEdge has been the leading system in the US for 20 years, and is used by investment management firms, pension funds and others to manage the risk in their portfolios.

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