SecondFloor's Joyce Simmons gave a presentation on "Embedded Risk Management – Technology That Helps" at the IRM Meeting in London today.

According to the organizers, the presentations given were well received and "might have blown a few minds".

Download Joyce's presentation here!

Amsterdam, 31 August 2011

SecondFloor - providers of innovative software solutions for financial organisations - staff collected 1,200 Euro for the Dutch Lifeboat Service (Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij – KNRM) during its annual kick-off event.  

As always, SecondFloor doubled the amount collected. SecondFloor’s Chief Operating Officer, Glen Smeaton-McCarty, handed over a cheque for 2,400 Euro to Edward Zwitser of the KNRM, stating that “both SecondFloor and the KNRM are in the business of providing confidence, control and reducing and managing risks. SecondFloor are proud to help the KNRM team make a difference.” The donation will go towards specialised rescue equipment.

_________________________________________________________________________

SecondFloor provides innovative compliancy Risk Management software with a focus on the insurance sector. With our products eFrame and IISolve we have very powerful, innovative solutions for the current challenges of the insurance sector. Our extensive experience with insurance Risk Management and Solvency II, combined with strong partnerships with market leaders get us in the pole position for innovative development and implementation projects. Working with fixed price - fixed date agreements, we offer our clients the unique opportunity to start ambitious and innovative IT projects while knowing the end date and the costs involved beforehand.


Please contact:
Karen Clark
Marketing Manager
k.clark@secondfloor.nl
+31 6 4335 9320

There are two upcoming Risk Management events that we would like to invite you to:

 Date: 8th September 2011
Time: 16:00 CET

With the advent of Solvency II in January 2013, European insurers are required to comply with new risk management and governance regulations. Because compliance is mandatory, senior management needs to understand how their processes relate to the regulations so that their systems are fully auditable. Attend this webinar to learn how your organization can meet the requirements of Solvency II using Software AG’s Solvency II Content Package. The presentation will cover:
•    A demonstration of the Solvency II Content Package in ARIS.
•    A demonstration of the ARIS Enterprise Risk Management(ERM) solution to comply with the governance requirements of Pillar II of Solvency II. This solution is in use by companies like ASR Asset Management and W & W.
•    SecondFloor’s auditable solution that significantly enhances spreadsheets utilizing the existing EIOPA standard model and data structures.

Register now for this webinar and learn how to accelerate your compliance efforts with Solvency II! The webinar will be recorded and a copy of the slides and a link to the on-demand recording will be sent to all registrants. 

Solvency II Special Interest Group Meeting

SecondFloor's Joyce Simmons will be presenting at the Institute of Risk Management Solvency II Special Interest Group meeting 13th October 2011.  Joyce will be one of four speakers discussing the topic "Embedding risk management and creating a risk culture".  Should you like to attend this event in London sign-up via the following link http://www.theirm.org/events/SolvencyII.htm

Upcoming events with SecondFloor participation

Solvency II Implementation, London, UK

Conference Dates: 19th – 21st July 2011

Day 2:

13.30 – 15.00 - Moving the ORSA from Theory to Practice – Panel Session
•    Best practice so far
•    Overview of the experiences of the participants with understanding and embedding the ORSA
•    Where your company should be with the ORSA
•    How can the ORSA become embedded in the company
•    How can companies demonstrate that they have embedded them, what needs to change in order to do so

    Panel
•    Adam Seager, Group Risk Management, LIBERTY SYNDICATES,
•    Director, INSTITUTE OF OPERATIONAL RISK
•    Jan Piekoszewski, Solvency II Programme Manager, ATRADIUS
•    Brian Abrey, Solvency II Lead, OLD MUTUAL
•    Nilanjan Mukherjee, SecondFloor

Day 2
15.15 – 16.00 Changes and Opportunities Created by the Solvency II Data Controls
Speaker: Joyce Simmons, SecondFloor

Deloitte Learning-on-the-Go: Model Practice in a Solvency II framework

Models provide powerful tools for insurance companies for identifying, assessing, monitoring, measuring and mitigating risks, for decision support and scenario analyses, and to determine the value of your assets and liabilities. Both internal as well as external stakeholders rely on information resulting from models.

As a result of the new Solvency II regulations, many insurance companies are struggling with their model practice and validation standards. The new regulatory framework requires models to be transparent and of high quality. Therefore, sound model governance is of utmost importance.

Also, Excel still plays an important role in many insurance companies. However, the general perception is that Excel is poorly auditable and vulnerable for end user computing (EUC). SecondFloor has developed a solution in which spreadsheets can be used in a robust, transparent and auditable environment.

On behalf of Deloitte and SecondFloor we are pleased to invite you to attend our next Learning-on-the-Go. Note that we have postponed the Learning-on the-Go of 1 March and adjusted the program slightly to provide for a better fit with the current issues at insurance companies.

Supported by the knowledge we have gained with the Global Model Practice Survey we performed in the Autumn of 2010, we will address the most relevant aspects for a sound model practice in the perspective of the new regulations. Furthermore, SecondFloor will present of their solution to the vulnerability of Excel in modeling. The agenda will be as follows:

    * Introduction to current issues of model practice in an Solvency II framework;
    * Our vision of a sound model practice;
    * SecondFloor: the solution for robust Excel modeling.

The learning session will take place on:

28 March 2011, 15h00-17h00
Orlyplein 10 - Amsterdam

The learning session will take place in a closed environment were ideas about model governance can be shared. In doing so, you get a clear idea about model governance at peer organizations. A drink will be served afterwards for the participants to encourage exchange of ideas and experiences.

Presenters of the first part of the training will be Pelle van Vlijmen, Director Financial Risk Management – Deloitte Netherlands and Tjeerd Degenaar, Senior Manager Financial Risk Management – Deloitte Netherlands.

The last part of the training will be facilitated by Martin Knook, CEO and Co-founder of SecondFloor.

If you wish to register for this session, please email us asap: marketing@secondfloor.nl

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 from 6:30 PM - 9 PM
BCS 1st floor, 5 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, London

Join fellow Solvency II professionals including SecondFloor’s CEO, Martin Knook on Wednesday, 23rd February 2011.  During this event, which is organized by the BCS The Chartered Institute for IT, many aspects of Solvency II, data governance, case studies, current status, work still to do, IT tools and techniques will be discussed.

Expert presenters include:

•    PAUL LATARCHE, Partner, Moore Stephens
•    JOHN SMITH, Business Solutions Partner & Solvency II Leader, IBM
•    TOBY DUCKER, Solvency II Programme Director, Brit Insurance
•    MARTIN KNOOK, CEO, SecondFloor
•    DAVE GILL, Product Manager - iWorks Prophet, SunGard

More information: http://www.nlondon.bcs.org/ne.htm

We would like to take this opportunity and invite you to this event – seats are limited so please RSVP asap with us (info@secondfloor.nl) or on the website: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1256954585?ref=ebtn

In December, SecondFloor will share the knowledge gained in many Solvency II projects in two not-to-be missed events:

1. Solvency II event in the Olympic Stadium Amsterdam on 8 December, 12.00 - 17.00

Solvency II experts of SecondFloor, Software AG and ERC Electronic Publishers jointly organize a Solvency II event for European insurance companies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Wednesday, 8 December 2010.

Presentations will focus on different aspects of Solvency II:

Solvency II: Implementing a changing change – Marco Hauck, Allianz Group: Marco Hauck is risk manager at Allianz Group Munich and will share his experiences building a Solvency II compliant risk process. You will be surprised about the results achieved so far in the presentation.

Compliance, shooting a moving target – Cees de Jong: Cees de Jong has been working in the insurance industry for more than 40 years. He worked many years for AXA Nederland and is advising dozens of insurance companies across Europe. He has written numerous books for financial services and educates students in authorization compliance. Cees de Jong will focus on different aspects of Solvency II compliance in his presentation.

Solvency II experiences – Joyce Simmons, SecondFloor: Joyce Simmons was Chief Risk Officer of ING Central Europe for almost 5 years. Afterwards, she worked several years as Head of ECAPS, ING’s internal economic capital model. In this position, she handled replicating portfolios to value insurance liabilities and calculate the AFR and economic capital required for an AA insurance company. Currently, she is VP Business Development/Actuarial Consultant at SecondFloor. She will share her Solvency II experiences with you.

Integrated ERM solution with Solvency II reference model – Sven Roeleven, IDS Scheer: Sven Roeleven is Director of ARIS Services at Software AG. In the past few years, he has been active at the regional and corporate levels as GRC Solution Manager. In that position, he managed dozens of GRC projects as well as the roll-in and roll-out of knowledge and experiences. Sven will demonstrate live the Solvency II best practices. The Solvency II reference model and the relation between ERC Electronic Publishers and ARIS will be part of the very pragmatic demo.

For more details and to reserve your place, please contact us at info@secondfloor.nl

2. Webinar on 3 December 2010

Solvency II is challenging insurance companies across Europe to implement effective risk management reporting and measures. The new regulatory requirements are set to take effect on 31 December, 2012. As companies start updating their processes to comply, they are realizing the importance of a holistic approach that optimizes their business processes based on risk, compliance, internal control and audit.

SecondFloor and IDS Scheer are offering a combined webinar to learn how your organization can meet the requirements of Solvency II using an effective Governance and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. Martin Knook, CEO SecondFloor, and Sven Roeleven, Director of ARIS Services for The Netherlands, will present process best practices learned from early implementation efforts of Solvency II.
The presentation will cover:

• An overview of Solvency II and a proven holistic GRC methodology

• A demonstration of a Solvency II reference database that includes articles of the law, interpretation to insurance processes, and predefined risks and controls.

• A demonstration of the ARIS ERM solution to comply with Pillar II of Solvency II - Supervisor Review.

Webinar Details:
Date: December 3, 2010
Time: 15:00 CET
[ Register here for this webinar.]

Main Capital II and TIIN Buy-out & Growth Fund have obtained a substantial minority stake in the company SecondFloor. This was jointly announced today by the three organizations. Solution Provider SecondFloor delivers compliance solutions to several large European (top-10) insurers in order to comply with the upcoming Solvency II regulations. The unique software guarantees a transparent risk process, an issue in which a lot of technical data integration and business aspects are involved. With the growth capital, SecondFloor is able to benefit from the momentum which currently exists in this particular market, due to Solvency II.

Insurers increasingly have to comply with regulations in the field of capital calculations and the ability to make an audit trail of the different risk processes. The Solvency II regulations have to be implemented by 2012. SecondFloor, together with its Canadian partner, a leading supplier of risk calculation software, has more than 4 years of experience in making Solvency II compliancy solutions. For smaller and medium sized insurers, the company offers in house developed software solutions. Today, Secondfloor serves more than ten large international insurers. The Risk Management solution which SecondFloor provided for ING won the prestigious Banking and Finance ICT Innovation Award. 

Research of the renowned institute Gartner earlier this year revealed that SecondFloor’s main strength lies in providing solutions for the pillar II aspects of the Solvency II regulations, an area where the company has extensive experience with implementations among a broad array of insurers.

With Main Capital and TIIN Capital, the company gets entrepreneurial investors on board. Both investors are mainly funded by informal investors and family offices. Main and TIIN will help and advise the management where possible, in order to realize further growth of the company. This will be accomplished by participating in the board and by using the extended networks of both companies. TIIN as well as Main have elaborate experience in helping software companies with their growth expansion.

Martin Knook, CEO of SecondFloor, says: ”The fast growth of our organization, which we accomplished in recent years, has never been at the expense of the quality of our services. In order to establish this growth in combination with the roll out of the standardized solutions in a professional way, investments are needed and can be accomplished in a responsible manner with the capital of TIIN and Main. After a 12 month search,  we have found a private equity firm with a good understanding of our business. We are ready to provide our knowledge and experiences on a large scale to our clients.”  

Charly Zwemstra, managing partner of Main Capital Partners, states: “This is the third software investment in a row for Main Capital partners in 2010. We have a good understanding of this particular segment (software for financial institutions). SecondFloor has proven that it is able to service large European insurers in an excellent manner. Personally, I also have great confidence in the management capabilities of Martin Knook (CEO of SecondFloor). He has the strength and vision to benefit from the rapid growth in this particular niche segment”. Main already has done a successful investment in the pension fund and insurers segment with the software company Actuera.

Willem van den Berg, managing partner of TIIN Capital, adds: “SecondFloor is a fast growing ICT company with great competences in the attractive solvency II market. Thanks to a very capable management, SecondFloor has all potential to turn into a leading international player. SecondFloor fits very well into our TIIN capital portfolio of ICT companies ”  

The Growth capital will be used to realize further international expansion of the company. SecondFloor is already active in Germany, England, France and Scandinavia.

----------------------------- 

About SecondFloor

SecondFloor provides innovative compliancy Risk Management software with a focus on the insurance sector.

With our products eFrame and IISolve, our Solvency II component library, we have very powerful, innovative solutions for the current challenges of the insurance sector. Our extensive experience with insurance Risk Management and Solvency II, combined with strong partnerships with market leaders get us in the pole position for innovative development and implementation projects. 

Working with fixed price - fixed date agreements, we offer our clients the unique opportunity to start ambitious and innovative IT projects while knowing the end date and the costs involved beforehand.

For more information please contact Martin Knook (CEO)

Second Floor

Beech Avenue 180

1119 PS Schiphol-Rijk

Tel:  020-658 9700

Email: M.knook@secondfloor.nl

www.secondfloor.nl

-------------------------------

About Main Capital Partners 

Main Capital II is a private equity investment fund with a dedicated focus on  Media, Leisure & Technology segments and has top expertise in ‘later stage’ growth capital and small management buy-outs. Funders are mainly informal investors and family offices. Main Capital invested in Dutch Filmworks (multimedia publisher), Actuera (software and IT services for pension funds and insurers), Sharewire (mobile software development for iPhone/blackberry), Zetacom (VOIP data communication systems), IASO (online back-up software) and Visionwaves (BI/CPM software). Main Capital I and Main Capital II are managed by Main Capital Partners.

For more information please contact Charly Zwemstra

Main Capital Partners B.V.

Paleisstraat 6

2514 JA, Den Haag

Tel: +31(0)70 -324 3433 / +31(0)6-51277805

Email: charly@main.nl, arjan@main.nl

www.main.nl 

-------------------------------

About TIIN Capital 

TIIN Capital (The Informal Investor Network) invests and supports entrepreneurs because besides money, also guidance and counseling is needed to come to a successful participation. TIIN Capital invests through its Buy-out & Growth and TechFunds and lately with its newly raised TechFund 2.

TIIN Buy-out & Growth Fund invests in promising growth, buy-outs/buy-ins and buy & build companies (> 5 years). Focus thereby is on the manufacturing, medical technology and ICT sectors. Fund size is € 12 million with participations amounting between € 250.000 and € 2.000.000 per investment. When possible the Groeifaciliteit Garantie regeling of EZ/Agentschap NL will be used in order to secure a part of the investment.

For more information please contact Willem van den Berg

The Informal Investors Network

Biltseweg 8

3735 MC, Bosch en Duin

Tel: +31(0)30 225 1221 / +31 (0)6-53921727

Email: Vandenberg@tiincapital.nl

www.tiincapital.nl 

SecondFloor, an innovative and dynamic IT project organization, based in Schiphol-Rijk and servicing the financial industry worldwide, donated an impressive € 1.432,45 to the Fonds voor verstandelijk gehandicapten today to enable mentally handicapped people to fulfill their dreams, following the company motto of “Level Up”.

Martin Knook, founder and CEO of SecondFloor says: “During our kick-off meeting this year, we auctioned off all kinds of gifts we received over the last year and our international team members went absolutely wild as they knew the money would be donated to Fonds voor verstandelijk gehandicapten, an organization which shares our company values of entrepreneurship, innovation, reliability, dynamics and commitment. The most fanatic bid was probably 100 Euro for a board game.”

See also the website of the Fonds voor verstandelijk gehandicapten.

Algorithmics, Barrie & Hibbert and SecondFloor announced today that they are working in partnership to deliver Solvency II solutions for insurance companies of all sizes.

The solutions, comprising an end-to-end analytical framework and process, will enable insurance companies to measure, manage and report Solvency Capital Requirements (SCR) under Solvency II regulations and will be offered both as deployed software and as a managed service.

The solution will combine Algorithmics’ award winning Algo Risk with Barrie & Hibbert’s extensive economic scenario services and SecondFloor‘s experience in building risk reporting workflow and process controls.

At the core of the solution is Algo Risk, providing insurance companies with an enterprise-wide internal model framework. Algo Risk offers a number of practical methods to assist insurers to calculate their Solvency Capital Requirements (SCR), including Replicating Portfolios, Curve Fitting, Standard Formula and advanced copula-based risk aggregation.

Barrie and Hibbert will provide a coherent approach to replicating and curve fitting scenario selection and weighting, the associated liability-specific asset selection for replicating portfolios, and real-world scenario calibration in the context of Solvency II requirements. This will ensure that there is a close fit between the replicating portfolio or fitted curve and the initial value of the technical provisions and that there is a high degree of replication accuracy when undertaking an SCR or other economic capital calculations.

In conjunction with Algorithmics, SecondFloor has designed and built a workflow component that will enable users to manage reporting periods and data based on a company-wide hierarchical structure, submit and approve portfolio replications, and initiate final reporting. The new component, which will be bundled into the Algorithmics solution, will provide a comprehensive risk management platform that integrates portfolio replication, curve fitting, and risk aggregation within a risk management and reporting infrastructure which is auditable, automated and centralized.

Curt Burmeister, Vice President of Risk Solutions, Algorithmics, said: "We already have strong working relationships with both Barrie & Hibbert and SecondFloor and together we have pioneered the use of portfolio replication among large insurance companies who were looking for industry leading solutions for their capital and real-time risk management and reporting.  Our Solvency II solution now offers insurers a range of options for calculating their Solvency Capital Requirement, whatever their size or required level of sophistication.”

Andrew Barrie, Executive Director and Founder, Barrie & Hibbert, added: “Many insurers already have strong processes, using our scenario generation models, for economic and regulatory capital valuation. The challenge for Solvency II in general, and the use of internal models in particular, is extending these processes, filling the gaps, creating greater transparency, providing full audit trails, and facilitating ‘real time’ risk management. Working with Algorithmics will mean that insurers will get a market leading solution to the challenges of building their ERM frameworks.”

Martin Knook, CEO and Co-Founder of SecondFloor, explains: "We are delighted to have formalized our existing relationship with Algorithmics. We have already worked together on three global insurance projects and jointly won an IT innovation award. We know that we have a market leading workflow solution to implement Solvency II governance systems that is proven with some of the world’s biggest insurance companies and now we look forward to standardizing our experience for the rest of the insurance industry.”

Algorithmics, Barrie & Hibbert and SecondFloor will be exhibiting at the Life Conference 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 26th and 27th November 2009 and showcasing the Solvency II offering there.

12-10-2009

Amsterdam, 12 October 2009

Het financieele dagblad announced today that SecondFloor is one of the 686 fastest growing companies in the Netherlands.

Martin Knook, CEO SecondFloor Group, says: "We're honoured to be amongst this elite group of extremely successful companies in the Netherlands. This proves our successful approach to IT projects in the financial industry – small, flexible teams of innovative experts working on fixed price – fixed date projects, bridging the gap between our customers' business needs and their existing IT solutions. Thanks to our extremely motivated team, the innovative business intelligence solutions we offer and the strong partnerships with companies like Algorithmics and Exalead, we've been able to achieve a very stable growth."


Recently, SecondFloor has introduced eFrame, a software solution that enables audit ability in Excel, thereby paving the way to compliancy.

More information: www.eFrame.eu

The Gouden Gazelle awards will be handed in November out during a theatre tour across the Netherlands. More information: www.fd.nl/fdgazellen
 

About SecondFloor

SecondFloor group is dedicated to providing professional IT services to the financial industry. Our extensive knowledge combined with our trademark approach of deploying small, flexible and highly effective teams led by experienced specialists ensures successful project results and has quickly earned us a positive reputation. SecondFloor offers business process driven IT solutions that bridge the gaps between a client’s business needs and existing technology. Our standard approach, leading the project team to delivery within the agreed budget and time frame, has proven to be successful in many different projects all over the world.

PARIS / AMSTERDAM, 9 septembre --     SecondFloor annonce l’ouverture de son bureau français, développant ainsi le réseau du groupe SecondFloor avec quatre unités commerciales aux Pays-Bas, en Allemagne, dans les pays du Nord (en préparation) et en France.

Paul Collard, ancien Vice-président directeur d’ING Card, conduira l’établissement de l’unité commerciale de SecondFloor à Paris, en tant que Directeur général.

Paul Collard a débuté sa carrière chez Postbank Pays-Bas. En 1995, il prend la tête de la division internationale de vente au détail ING en tant que responsable de la conception marketing d’ING Direct avec la première introduction réussie des services bancaires directs au Canada. Plus tard, responsable de développement commercial, accompagné de son équipe, il met en place ING Direct en Australie, France et Italie. En 2000, il devient membre du comité d’ING Direct en France. Après trois années réussies, il rejoint ING Card, en tant que responsable du Marketing et du Développement commercial international, introduisant avec succès, le concept de la carte de crédit ING aux Pays-Bas, en Belgique, en Allemagne, en Roumanie et en Chine, de concert avec SecondFloor qui a fourni la technologie, la gestion de projet et la connaissance commerciale.

Paul Collard déclare : « Je connais SecondFloor depuis plusieurs années pour avoir travaillé ensemble sur les différentes introductions d’ING Card et je crois fermement à l’approche rationnelle du projet, à l’esprit d’équipe ainsi qu’au rapport qualité/prix. Je suis donc absolument ravi de rejoindre l’équipe de SecondFloor. Le moment était le bien choisi pour ouvrir un bureau à Paris, depuis lequel nous pouvons offrir nos projets à prix et à échéances fixes, notre véritable signature ; avec des solutions logicielles, outils et services innovants dans la gestion de risque, des Cartes et des Paiements. De par mon expérience combinée à notre expertise, nous sommes convaincus que nous laisserons notre marque sur les marchés financiers français et belges. »

À propos de SecondFloor

SecondFloor est une jeune organisation innovante et dynamique spécialisée dans les projets informatiques. SecondFloor propose une expertise complète de l'industrie des finances et des TIC dans le monde entier, en plus d'améliorer l'efficacité des activités commerciales de ses clients en gérant les changements et en offrant des solutions commerciales conformément à un accord à échéance et à prix fixes.

SecondFloor a optimisé le fonctionnement de nombreuses institutions financières de renom dans le domaine de la gestion du risque, de l'émission de cartes et des paiements. Nous écoutons attentivement les exigences professionnelles de nos clients et les traduisons sous la forme de solutions TI primées qui feront passer leurs entreprises au niveau supérieur.

http://www.SecondFloor.eu

Source : SecondFloor B.V.

SecondFloor France est situé : Tour Pacific, 11, Cours Valmy, 92977 Paris La Défense, France,

Téléphone: +33-1 7329 4789 / +31-6 5089 9885

SecondFloor announces the opening of their French office, expanding the network of the SecondFloor group to four business units in the Netherlands, Germany, the Nordics (in preparation) and France.

Paul Collard, former Senior Vice President of ING Card, will take the lead in establishing SecondFloor’s business unit in Paris as General Manager.

Paul Collard started his career at Postbank Netherlands. In 1995 he stepped up to the international retail division of ING where he was responsible for the marketing conception of ING Direct with the first successful introduction of direct banking in Canada. Later responsible for business development he and his teams implemented ING Direct in Australia, France and Italy. In 2000 he became a board member of ING Direct in France. After 3 successful years he joined ING Card, in charge of Marketing and International Business development, introducing the ING credit card concept successfully in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Romania and China, together with SecondFloor, who supplied technology, project management and business knowledge. 

Paul Collard states “I’ve known SecondFloor for several years, having worked together on the various successful ING Card introductions and I strongly believe in the no nonsense project approach, team spirit and value for money qualities. Therefore, I’m very excited to join the team of SecondFloor. The time was right to open an office in Paris, from where we can now offer our trademark fixed price – fixed date projects with innovative software solutions, tools and services in the domains of Risk Management and Cards & Payments. With my experience and our combined expertise, we are convinced we can leave our mark in the French and Belgian financial market.”

The new business unit SecondFloor can be found at:

Tour Pacific
11, Cours Valmy
La Défense 7
92 977 Paris La Defense
France

Telephone: +33 173294789
www.SecondFloor.eu


About SecondFloor
SecondFloor is an innovative and dynamic IT company. With comprehensive expertise of the financial industry and ICT worldwide, we level up the effectiveness of your business by managing changes and delivering business solutions based on fixed price and fixed date agreements.
SecondFloor has leveled up the business of many renowned financial institutions in the domain of risk management, card issuance and payments. We listen well to our clients’ business needs and translate them into award winning IT solutions that will move their business up to the next level.

eFrame centralise la gestion de fichiers Excel pour plus de fiabilité

Bon nombre des erreurs que contiennent les tableurs sont dues à un respect hasardeux des processus. Un nouvel outil web les automatise et assure contrôle et traçabilité des données.

Amsterdam / Frankfurt, 25 August 2009.

SecondFloor introduces eFrame, a web based application framework that enables users to create an automated, secure and auditable workflow using their familiar Excel environment.

The usage of Microsoft Excel is a phenomenon many financial institutions already embrace. The program is easy to use, can be configured for the unique business needs of the user, it is user friendly and most importantly everybody has it available as part of Microsoft Office.

Although Excel has a lot to offer for financials, the program also leaves some loopholes in the business processes that can make the use of Excel risky. For example the audit ability of the program is problematic; Excel does not support mandatory processes. Data or model changes are not centrally stored, there is no version control and decentralized usage leads to a lot of manual labor. The disadvantages of Excel can lead to a significant impact on companies in the financial industry.

A simple cut and paste error in Excel has cost TransAlta 24 million US Dollars and incorrect links in spreadsheets have cost Allied Irish bank 700 million US Dollars on Fraud.

These are just two of more than 300 recorded examples of fatal issues caused by the use of unaudited Excel spreadsheets.

SecondFloor has developed eFrame, a web based application framework that enhances Excel and will use the existing models and data structure. This means that users can still use their Excel models and files in a controlled and server-based environment.

eFrame adds compliancy sign-off, controlled access, version control, backup functionality and full audit ability. It will automate the workflow and is configurable to your business needs. Finally, the distribution process of data and reports will be automated.

For more information please visit our eFrame website: www.eframe.eu or call us: +31 20 6589 700 or +49 69 6607 6745

About SecondFloor
SecondFloor is an innovative and dynamic IT company. With comprehensive expertise of the financial industry and ICT worldwide, we level up the effectiveness of your business by managing changes and delivering business solutions based on fixed price and fixed date agreements.

SecondFloor has leveled up the business of many renowned financial institutions in the domain of risk management, card issuance and payments. We listen well to our clients’ business needs and translate them into award winning IT solutions that will move their business up to the next level.
www.secondfloor.eu

Algorithmics and SecondFloor announced today that AEGON, an international life insurance, pension and investment company, has chosen Algo Risk, Algorithmics’ high performance market risk and capital management solution, as its provider of replicating portfolio technology. AEGON will use this technology to create replicating portfolios for its assets and liabilities as part of a comprehensive risk management and risk reporting infrastructure.
 
Mike Dorsel, Vice President – Economic Framework Integration at AEGON, said: “We were looking for an industrial strength, enterprise-wide risk platform to implement portfolio replication for AEGON worldwide. We are confident in our choice to work with both Algorithmics and SecondFloor to integrate replicating portfolio technology into our risk management and reporting processes, and we very much look forward to realizing the benefits for AEGON. We hope to extend the uses of this technology well beyond economic capital reporting and risk dashboards.”
 
AEGON will implement Algo Risk globally and will use Algorithmics’ patented scenario-based portfolio optimization functionality to calculate replicating portfolios that can be used to measure the value of assets and liabilities quickly under various market risk sensitivities. Algo Risk also includes the ability to aggregate non-market risks (such as operational, insurance and credit risk) into a full enterprise-wide economic capital figure as well as a web-based reporting engine that allows users to analyze economic capital across multiple dimensions.
 
SecondFloor, an IT services company based in The Netherlands, will participate in the project to help AEGON enhance its risk reporting platform. SecondFloor is developing a custom application which will integrate with Algo Risk to provide AEGON with a workflow and control process which ensures an auditable, automated and centralized process. The custom solution will provide user interfaces that facilitate data collection and distribution, generate the universe of replicating instruments, manage and monitor the portfolio replication jobs, and maintain a business hierarchy allowing users to define the level and aggregation used for reporting.
 
Martin Knook, CEO of SecondFloor, explains: “We are delighted with the opportunity to co-operate with Algorithmics to develop a platform for AEGON. This is our third project of this nature with Algorithmics - we jointly won an IT innovation award with a similar solution and we know we have an exciting project ahead of us. Our teams are fully committed to delivering a comprehensive solution within an ambitious timeline.”
 
Curt Burmeister, Vice President of Risk Solutions, Algorithmics, said: “Portfolio replication is quickly becoming a standard and accepted methodology for integrating assets and liabilities into a single consistent framework for risk management. We are pleased that AEGON has joined the list of leading insurance companies that have selected Algo Risk as the platform for computing replicating portfolios”
 
Dr. Andrew Aziz, Executive Vice President of Risk Solutions, Algorithmics, added: “We are proud that AEGON has chosen to work with Algorithmics and use our technology and methodology to achieve its industry leading vision for capital and risk management. We both share the view that portfolio replication offers an effective and efficient tool for calculating economic capital, for reporting and for real-time risk management.”
 
For more information about Algo Risk for Insurance, please visit: http://www.algorithmics.com/EN/solutions/myindustry/insurance.cfm
 
For more information about SecondFloor, visit: www.secondfloor.eu
 
ENDS
 
For further information please contact:

Heather Smith, Senior Communications Manager, Algorithmics (UK) Ltd
Direct line +44 (0) 20 7392 5820  Mobile +44 (0) 7515 974223
E-mail Heather.smith@algorithmics.com
 
Martin Knook, General Director SecondFloor Netherlands
Direct line: +31 20 6589 700
Email: m.knook@secondfloor.nl

Notes to Editors:
As an international life insurance, pension and investment company based in The Hague, AEGON has businesses in over twenty markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia. AEGON companies employ approximately 31,500 people and have over 40 million customers across the globe.
 
Algorithmics is the world's leading provider of enterprise risk solutions. Financial organizations from around the world use Algorithmics' software, analytics and advisory services to help them make risk-aware business decisions, maximize shareholder value, and meet regulatory requirements. Supported by a global team of risk experts based in all major financial centers, Algorithmics offers proven, award-winning solutions for market, credit and operational risk, as well as collateral and capital management. Algorithmics is a member of the Fitch Group. www.algorithmics.com
 
SecondFloor is an IT project organization, based in the Netherlands and Germany. SecondFloor services organizations within the financial industry worldwide with comprehensive expertise of the industry and ICT. SecondFloor provides business process improvements, (SOA) software solutions and temporary professionals to organizations that want to redefine and renew their (IT-) processes, that seek for new solutions or want to introduce new products into the market. Industry best practices and a proven project management approach are the foundation of the services, solutions and sourcing possibilities that SecondFloor offers on a fixed price – fixed date basis. For more information about SecondFloor, visit: www.secondfloor.eu

Algorithmics’ Risk and Economic Capital for Insurance solution is designed to provide a consistent, enterprise-wide view of risk, an essential outlook for insurers and pension funds seeking to maximize investment performance through intelligent risk taking. Supporting underwriting, market risk, credit risk, and portfolio management activities across both assets and liabilities, Risk and Economic Capital for Insurance helps firms to manage economic capital, enhance productivity, and ultimately generate greater shareholder value.
Algo Risk supports the pursuit of informed investment decisions with real time access to market and risk information. Addressing the diverse needs of risk managers, traders, portfolio managers, and quants, Algo Risk supports multiple investment strategies, asset classes, valuation methodologies, risk/portfolio analytics, and scenario generation techniques. Algo Risk integrates the front and middle office through a flexible reporting interface. Decision support functions such as "what-if" analysis and "best hedge" recommendations are provided in addition to standard risk and performance analysis. Supporting a wide range of advanced portfolio and risk analytics, Algo Risk combines real time risk monitoring and an easy-to-use, customizable structure within an enterprise-wide data management system.
 
Replicating Portfolios
Leveraging Algorithmics’ wide asset coverage and a patented, scenario-based portfolio optimization module, Algo Risk can be used to determine an optimal proxy portfolio of asset instruments that replicate the characteristics of a given set of scenario-dependent liability cash flows. This replicated portfolio can then be further simulated and stress tested to determine capital requirements. Liability cash flows can be imported from any existing actuarial projection system, providing consistency and integrated reporting across business lines and geographic borders. In particular, the replicated portfolio technique can be adopted as a computationally efficient method for modeling liabilities in a hedging analysis, economic capital or regulatory capital calculation.
 
Fitch Group is the parent company of Fitch Ratings, a global ratings agency committed to providing the world's markets with independent, timely and prospective credit opinions. With 49 offices worldwide, Fitch Ratings’ global expertise spans across capital markets in over 150 countries. Fitch Ratings is headquartered in New York and London.
 
The Fitch Group also includes Fitch Solutions, a distribution channel for Fitch Ratings products and a provider of data, analytics and related services; and Algorithmics, the world's leading provider of enterprise risk solutions.
 
The Fitch Group is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fimalac, S.A., headquartered in Paris, France.

For additional information, please visit www.fitchratings.com www.algorithmics.com and www.fimalac.com
 
© 2009 Algorithmics Software LLC. All rights reserved. ALGO, ALGORITHMICS, Ai & design, ALGORITHMICS & Ai & design, KNOW YOUR RISK, MARK-TO-FUTURE, RISKWATCH, ALGO ALM, ALGO COLLATERAL, ALGO CREDIT ADMINISTRATOR, ALGO CREDIT DATA SERVICES, ALGO CREDIT ECONOMIC CAPITAL, ALGO CREDIT EXPOSURE, ALGO CREDIT LIMITS, ALGO CREDIT REGULATORY CAPITAL, ALGO CREDITVANTAGE, ALGO ETREASURY CREDIT, ALGO FIRST, FIRST 500, ALGO MARKET ANALYTICS, ALGO OPDATA, ALGO OPVAR, ALGO RECONCILIATION, ALGO RISK, ALGO RISK SERVICE, and ALGO SUITE are trademarks of Algorithmics Trademarks LLC.

SecondFloor, a young, dynamic, award-winning IT project organization focused on the financial industry, has taken the next step from shooting star to mature player in the business by opening a second business unit in the financial heart of Germany, Frankfurt/Main.
Understanding the business needs of a client, offering flexible services according to the ambitions of a project and last but not least a Fixed Date – Fixed Price approach are some of the key features of SecondFloor’s unique business model.
The new Business Unit, which will concentrate not only on the German speaking market, can be found at:

SecondFloor GmbH
Herriotstrasse 1 room 2.15
60528 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Telephone: +49 176 1479 0123
www.SecondFloor.de


SecondFloor Germany will host an introduction event on the 26th of March from 5 – 7 pm in the Innside Premium Hotel in Herriotstrasse 2, Frankfurt.
You’re cordially invited to come and learn more about SecondFloor, to network and to find out where we can work together in the future!
Please RSVP by the 20th of March: info@secondfloor.de
We will have a raffle for a free business analysis worth 10.000 Euros – so register your business case today under www.secondfloor.de/FREE_business_analysis or bring it with you when you come to the event on the 26th of March!


About SecondFloor
SecondFloor is a innovative, dynamic and solidly growing IT company. With comprehensive expertise of the financial industry and ICT worldwide, we level up the effectiveness of your business by managing changes and delivering business solutions based on fixed price and fixed date agreements.
We service our clients within the financial industry with excellent knowledge of cards and payments, financial risk management, and the delivery of business changes. With our thorough approach we ensure quality, guaranteeing that both technical and business consequences are taken into consideration.

• Expertise on cards & payments area and financial risk management
• Unique fixed price and fixed date project approach
• International Banking and Finance Award winning solution which meets Solvency II requirements
• Automated testing services
• Program management services
• Business architecture services
• Program management services

We are pleased to announce that SecondFloor will take a core role in an ambitious project to develop a risk management platform for Allianz Group. The custom built solution provides Allianz with auditable, automated, centralized and SOX compliant risk calculations on the basis of a new replication portfolio approach. SecondFloor will be responsible for the analysis, information architecture, server based implementation, testing, deployment and support, providing Allianz with a robust, reliable and auditable solution.

Martin Knook, CEO of SecondFloor explains: We share the Allianz ambition to move from getting the numbers to actually using the numbers. We are delighted with the opportunity to provide a Risk Platform that offers risk computation on group level; we’ve been down this road before – we have won an IT innovation Award with a similar solution - and we know we have an exciting project ahead of us. Our team is fully committed to deliver the right solution within the ambitious timeline of 12 months.

Andreas Kunze, Co-Project Manager from Allianz, describes the benefit as follows: This system allows to improve risk management and control significantly and becomes a core pillar to fulfill forthcoming Solvency II requirements. We have been impressed by the professionalism of SecondFloor in the conception phase and appreciate their full commitment to support our aggressive time line and targets.

The SecondFloor solution will primarily collect and process information from the various Allianz subsidiaries worldwide. The gathered data will be fed into an existing calculation engine in a controlled manner. After calculation, SecondFloor technology ensures that the results are presented in a standardized reporting format and can be distributed to the board, within the Allianz organization and even to outside parties like supervisory bodies.

SecondFloor sponsors the Life & Pensions Solvency II conference that will be held in Brussels on October 30, 2008. Life & Pensions Magazine’s annual Solvency II & Risk Management conference provides an invaluable insight into providing practical advice on the implications of the new Solvency II directive and will offer industry leading sessions on managing insurance risk under the new guidelines to maximize your capital.

For SecondFloor, this conference is an excellent stage to present the SecondFloor Risk Management skills and solutions to an international and professional public. Further information about the conference can be found here.

We are very pleased to announce that the SecondFloor testing team is fully ISEB/ISTQB certified. Although the main focus of the certification is on designing and executing tests, test methodology and reporting, affiliated subjects like issue management, test management and requirement engineering are also covered.

With this certification, we are able to offer our clients a fully certified testing team, where all team members have an in-depth knowledge of testing. Each tester is skilled and certified in many test methods, which enables them to efficiently tackle any testing task and to produce comprehensive reports.

In this month's edition of Banking & Finance Magazine, an article about the award winning solution ECAPS has been published. The article gives a clear overview of the innovative solution and the benefits ING CIRM gained by using it. Click to read the full article.

For further information about Banking & Finance magazine, see www.bankingfinance.eu.

We are delighted to announce that Actuate signed us as reseller for their technologies. Now as an Actuate reseller, focusing on the EMEA financial services market, we offer our clients Actuate’s sophisticated reporting technology as a component of our risk management software and across our solutions portfolio.

More information on the SecondFloor partnerships can be found here.

SecondFloor and Algorithmics are delighted to announce that the risk management solution ECAPS, built by SecondFloor and Algorithmics for ING Corporate Insurance Risk Management (CIRM), has won the prestigious Banking & Finance ICT Innovation Award. This award is presented yearly by Banking & Finance, a European Platform for Financial Professionals.

ECAPS is a common platform for risk management, implemented across the 30 plus countries on five continents in which the global insurance organization of ING operates. The solution was built using Algo Risk, Algorithmics’ portfolio construction and risk management solution and a SecondFloor intranet application that collects and processes data and produces risk management reports. This joint effort was designed and built within exceptionally short timelines (nine months) and resulted in an improved market risk and economic capital calculation 
In particular, ECAPS has pioneered the approach of applying “mass produced” replicating portfolios to risk management in insurance.  ECAPS provides the ability to simultaneously update over 40 ING business units worldwide and the system and processes are auditable and SOX compliant. This environment of increased automation and control has allowed ING to publicly disclose economic capital results for the first time, to reduce risk reporting time by 60%, and to allow instant access to global market risk data. It also establishes a firm basis for upcoming Solvency II requirements and a potential platform to meet IFRS Phase II accounting requirements for insurers.

“Together with Algorithmics and ING we delivered a solution that provides better insight and improved performance for ING CIRM” says Martin Knook, General Manager business development of SecondFloor. “Winning this award is an indication that the outside world definitely recognises the added value of this solution.”

Curt Burmeister, Algorithmics’ Senior Director of risk solutions said, "This has been a tremendously exciting project to work on with our partner SecondFloor and ING. Algo Risk provides complete Replicating Portfolio capabilities including Scenario Generation, Asset Modeling, Optimization and Risk Reporting, while SecondFloor has delivered the data integration platform that makes the risk analysis possible. This innovative solution is helping ING to combine its asset and liability management within a single, ‘fair value’ consistent framework and I believe it will prove to be a solution that has wide implications across a range of insurance companies in the future."

Read the Banking & Finance Article about the winning solution Ecaps

ING’s Tom Wilson, winner of the Life & Pensions Chief Risk Officer of the Year Award, recently stated in Life & Pensions Magazine that the highly innovative ECAPS project has been a “big step in the insurance industry”. SecondFloor has been actively involved in this project, delivering the solution - together with business partner Algorithmics - within a year.

Mr Wilson points out that “one of the most challenging tasks (…) has been to try and get the systems control architecture and reporting processes in place, so that we can close within the financial reporting calendar (…), numbers which are Sarbanes Oxley compliant for economic capital and our market-consistent balance sheet”.

SecondFloor’s contribution is a vital part of the ECAPS solution: we realized an intranet application that meets ING’s business needs. The solution primarily collects and processes data and produces reports, ensuring all assets and liability data is provided via an auditable reporting process. Currently, we are working on the refinement and optimization of the ECAPS solution, in close cooperation with the ING Corporate Risk Insurance department.