With the current volatile environment, surveillance has become a key feature in the work of collateral managers and investors alike. In this vein, Deloitte & Touche - which has previously come out with the ABCP, ABS and CDO Suite products as part of its Securitization Office family of solutions - has released Surveillance Suite, which is a customized tool to help users track their portfolios.
Previously, Deloitte & Touche has helped a number of ABCP sponsors as well as investors with their surveillance data. "What we found at that time was that each surveillance process was different depending on the portfolio or deals that they were monitoring," said Mark Scherer, a principal at Deloitte & Touche. "These were projects that were one-off type of projects and we wanted to create a more comprehensive solution that would address this diversity."
This is why a year and half ago, Deloitte came up with an approach that leveraged the existing technology and capabilities of its existing ABCP, ABS and CDO Suite products and applied them to developing this new surveillance product. The new tool allows users to customize their portfolios by giving them the ability to define or customize their own database structure and screens, import their data into the system, create their own menus lists, filter portfolio snapshots, and create trend lines showing deal performance, among other things. "The key is that all of this can be done by a business user without programming," Scherer added.
Deloitte & Touche has thus far been working on Surveillance Suite with two ABCP sponsors. These sponsors have used this generic tool to help them manage their pipeline while also addressing their surveillance needs which they, in turn, present to rating agencies.
This product is currently also being marketed to leveraged loan asset management firms. Hillel Caplan, a partner at Deloitte & Touche, said that Surveillance Suite's technology could easily apply to these shops. This is because the tool allows users to integrate files such as documentation on loan covenants and notes on analysts calls, which are integral to the work of leveraged loan portfolio managers.
"This tool can be used as a repository to store the myriad of documentation related to loans, including the faxes that managers receive from the different agent banks," Caplan said. "It can also track all of the intricate details related to the underlying borrowers, data that compliments other information that leveraged loan players already have."
(c) 2008 Asset Securitization Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.asreport.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
