Technofile Europe: FRSGlobal acquires IRIS

Among the few segments of the technology industry actually benefiting from the crisis roiling the financial markets are risk management and compliance. As shareholders scrutinise banks' risk management practices and regulators debate new reporting requirements, financial institutions of all sizes are having to review how they assess and report on risk.

Earlier this year I wrote about the need for a more comprehensive approach to risk management to take account of off-balance sheet assets and more correlated financial markets. In particular, I made the point that the bank CFO needs to have a holistic view of risk that is independent from the risk management systems used by individual trading desks.

In response to increasing demand for end-to-end risk systems under the CFO's control, we announced today the acquisition of IRIS Integrated Risk Management by our portfolio company FRSGlobal. Iris is known for having one of the most sophisticated platforms for managing complex risks in a single, integrated application. About 230 financial institutions worldwide use its products.

FRSGlobal will combine Iris' financial analysis capabilty with its ability to generate regulatory reports in over 30 countries to become the world's only one-stop shop for risk management and regulatory reporting for banks.

As you can tell, I'm pretty excited about this deal, because it (a) makes a lot of strategic sense and has a the support of FRSGlobal's and Iris's existing customers; and (b) it's always satisfying to find a market segment that is counter-cyclical as we head into uncertain economic waters.

Picture credit: Van Gelder Insurance.