IBM Targets Basel II Compliance With New PackageIBM Targets Basel II Compliance With New Package

IBM debuted an integrated set of software that's designed to help financial institutions comply with Basel II, the risk measurement standard set down for international banking interests.

The company teamed with Fair Isaac to build the package, called IBM Risk and Compliance - Basel II Information Management Offering. Fair Isaac, an analytics firm that serves mostly banks and other financial firms, contributed its Triad adaptive control system to the combined product. Triad serves up data on customer and account management, scoring, collections, credit line management and marketing.

IBM lends the information management side of the new package's infrastructure, as well as business consulting services, business intelligence technology and business process models. The company's DB2 data warehouse, WebSphere integration technology, and Alphablox analytics all contribute to the Basel II tool.

"IBM's new Basel II solution builds upon a proven business intelligence solution that already has been successfully deployed by numerous customers worldwide," said a statement attributed to Karen Parrish, IBM's VP for business intelligence solutions. More than 35 banks now use the package, IBM said.

IBM is touting the product not just as a compliance tool, but as a backbone for companies' entire information management infrastructure.

The average large financial institution will spend about $500,000 on a deployment of the new product, IBM said. "This is an average figure because many customers are building upon their investments and do not have to buy all [the] components or may just need to upgrade," a spokesperson said.

Basel II is a risk-measurement standard published by the Bank of International Settlements, a Switzerland-based institution that serves as an international bank for various nations' central banks.