Toyota Takes Risk Management Software From Sungard, Formerly Known as Infinity

NEW YORK--Toyota Motor Corporation has bought the market risk management software Panorama, from the US-based trading and risk technology company Sungard Trading and Risk Systems, formerly known as Infinity.

According to Sungard Trading and Risk Systems, Toyota will be using Panorama to manage the risk generated by foreign exchange deals, interest-rate products, bond derivatives and some exotic contracts.

The product will be installed in Toyota’s treasury department in the US and in Japan. It will provide daily analysis of the company’s global activities as well as serving as Toyota’s regulatory reporting tool.

Toyota is also considering using Panorama for credit-risk management.

A spokesperson for Sungard Trading and Risk Systems says Toyota will be actively testing this aspect of Panorama in the near future.

Toyota is Japan’s largest automotive manufacturer, producing more than 4.5 million units a year. Panorama will service business generated by the company’s 15 national sales financing centres.

Further, the company has declared plans to expand sales financing into a further 15 countries.

The company is looking to develop a broadly based financial services unit out of these sales financing operations.

The name-change for Infinity is part of a broader corporate strategy overhaul at Sungard, a major technology provider for financial services.

The aim of the new strategy is to co-ordinate the activities of the 52 Sungard subsidiaries to provide integrated products for customers.

"With the internet and straight-through processing, our clients are demanding broader solutions," says James Mann, chairman and chief executive officer of Sungard.

"Our opportunity is to operate as one global coordinated company. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

The internet is a challenge to both the financial services industry and the companies providing their technology, explains Cris Conde, president and chief operating officer at Sungard.

"In the new e-world, connectivity determines success," he says.

"Our clients want integrated, end-to-end solutions that operate on a real-time, 24 hour, seven day a week basis and can be personalised to individual customer needs."

At present, Sungard says $7 trillion in investment assets around the world are accounted for and managed daily on its systems.

The company says that well in excess of two million trades are processed by financial intermediaries daily on Sungard systems and approximately 70 per cent of Nasdaq trades flow through them.

In its previous incarnation as Infinity, Sungard Trading and Risk Systems produced a broad range of risk management products including the Panorama firm-wide risk system and the Devon and Opus legacy systems, which were the first enterprise-wide risk management systems in the markets.

In recent years, however, the company has branched out beyond risk. SunGard wants the firm to achieve a higher profile and provide an accurate reflection of the company’s diversity, according to a spokesperson.

The name-change is designed to help it achieve these goals. "Infinity is known for risk management but we are far more than that now and we need to reflect this in our communications," says the spokesperson.