FRSGlobal Acquires IRIS Integrated Risk Management; Combined group to produce first comprehensive risk and regulatory reporting solution

London – FRSGlobal, the only global provider of regulatory reporting solutions for over 30 countries, today announced the acquisition of Iris integrated risk management AG (“IRIS”), a provider of risk management solutions.

The acquisition enables FRSGlobal to introduce the first combined risk and regulatory reporting solution for financial services – addressing the need to create a single, reliable data framework to best manage risk and meet increasing global regulatory demands.

The deal is supported by The Carlyle Group and Kennet Partners, the private equity investors in FRSGlobal, and is subject to EU approval. Upon completion, FRSGlobal will become the largest independent software and services supplier operating in this space.

Steve Husk, CEO, FRSGlobal, commented:
“Risk and regulatory solutions have always been vital to the smooth operation of the financial industry and their true value is being highlighted in today’s tough economic climate. Risk and regulatory software have traditionally developed separately – we see this as the ideal time to pursue a strategic acquisition and bring the two together.”

Basel II and its ongoing review further to the subprime crisis, stresses that risk information presented to regulators, senior management and to the markets must be consistent and free from separation. Acquiring IRIS means that the market will be able to benefit from an integrated solution on a single platform.

Fernando Chueca, Associate Director, The Carlyle Group, said:
“FRSGlobal’s acquisition of IRIS fills a vital gap in the evolving industry landscape,combining two powerful solutions at a time when the need for comprehensive risk and regulatory solutions has never been clearer to financial institutions. Carlyle has been pleased to support FRSGlobal in executing this transaction through our expertise in technology M&A and our global footprint.”

IRIS is a privately-held, self-funded Swiss company, founded in 1992 by Dr. Jurg Winter and Dr Willi Brammertz. IRIS’ investment in areas of research and development remains amongst the highest of its peers, with over half of employees working in R&D.

IRIS’ riskpro™ is a worldwide leading solution for financial analysis – used by more than 230 financial institutions in over 20 countries – and covers all functionalities related to risk, ALM, IFRS, capital requirements and capital planning within a single integrated solution.

Steve Husk, CEO, FRSGlobal, continued:
“IRIS is one of the pioneers in aligning finance and risk activities within a single integrated platform, which marries perfectly with our global regulatory solution. The acquisition will also enable us to diversify and extend our offering – expanding into new regions, and further developing our suite of applications. Given the growing sophistication of the emerging markets and their increased attention to risk and regulation, this acquisition represents an important part of our future growth plans.”

Dr. Jurg B Winter, CEO and founder, IRIS, added:
“We welcome the acquisition by FRSGlobal and expect clients to benefit from a powerful combination of market-leading technologies, enabling them to take full advantage of this integrated solution. It is very much a natural fit for our business, significantly increasing the global reach of our solutions and we look forward to working with FRSGlobal.”

David Carratt, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said:
“Regulation such as Basel, RegNMS and MiFID was already creating a need for appropriate trading, data and risk infrastructure to be put in place. The credit crisis however has changed the nature of the beast and consequently created a host of other gaps in the existing operations of financial institutions. Risk and regulation has perhaps never been more important, or more debated, and if any companies are to benefit from this new environment they are within the financial technology space. FRSGlobal’s acquisition of IRIS has our full support and comes at a great time – the recent Corrigan report has highlighted just how seriously the industry is taking this issue.”

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About FRSGlobal

FRSGlobal is the only provider of global risk and regulatory compliance reporting solutions with coverage for 30+ countries. The firm is dedicated to risk and regulatory reporting and supplies financial organisations worldwide with an independent and costeffective multi-country regulatory reporting platform. Subscribing clients benefit from the FRSGlobal Guarantee – “to keep the reports up-to-date with regulators’requirements”.

FRSGlobal has nearly 20 years of industry expertise and its solutions are used in over 1500 financial organisations - including 41 of the top 50 global banking institutions.

FRSGlobal dedicates 25% of R&D annual expenditure to researching regulations and meeting with regulators, which results in an unparalleled Centre of Risk & Regulatory Excellence (CoR2E) that supports the FRSGlobal Guarantee.

FRSGlobal is headquartered in Brussels and has 19 other offices in North America (Boston, New York and Toronto), Europe (Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Zurich, Lausanne, Warsaw and Cluj-Napoca (Romania)), Dubai and Asia Pacific and Japan (Hong Kong, Pune and Singapore).

About IRIS
Information about IRIS is available at www.irisfinancial.com

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