Redwood Shores, Calif., Dec. 6, 2011 -- To help financial institutions comply fully with Basel III guidelines, Oracle introduced Oracle Financial Services Liquidity Risk Management.

With this application, banks now have the ability to achieve the minimum threshold that the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) requires for liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and net stable funding ratio (NSFR) in order to ensure adequate liquidity during stress over short- and long-term scenarios. These new standards complement the existing sound principles for liquidity risk management of BIS, Individual Liquidity Adequacy Standards of Financial Services Authority (FSA) and other regulatory guidelines that impact identification, assessment and control of liquidity risk under normal and stress conditions.

Allowing banks to identify and manage liquidity threats by comparing liquidity gaps under baseline assumptions and stress conditions, Oracle Financial Services Liquidity Risk Management also provides banks with the ability to focus on countering the liquidity hotspots through counterbalancing strategies. This approach allows senior management of a bank to make the most informed and accurate liquidity management decisions for regulatory compliance.

In addition to BIS, Oracle Financial Services Liquidity Risk Management delivers to banks a single solution that helps to ensure compliance with new and emerging regulatory requirements – including Dodd-Frank, Individual Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Standards of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – as well as institutions’ own internal risk requirements.

“Oracle Financial Services Liquidity Risk Management enables banks to take a pro-active approach for compliance with emerging regulations including Basel III and Dodd-Frank. The application allows them to address requirements for liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio while managing internal risk management strategies,” said S. Ramakrishnan, group vice president and general manager, Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications.

About Oracle Financial Services Software Limited

Oracle Financial Services Software Limited (referred to as "Oracle Financial Services Software") (Reuters: ORCL.BO & ORCL.NS) is a majority owned subsidiary of Oracle. Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest business software company. For more information, visit www.oracle.com/financialservices.

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

From Zacks Analyst Blog, December 8, 2011

Basel III implementation has emerged as a challenge for regulatory, capital and liquidity risk managers owing to the current stringent regulations. The new regulation raises the amount and quality of capital banks are required to hold, increases the capital charge for counterparty credit risk, introduces new liquidity and leverage ratios and focuses on greater risk integration and improved stress testing practices. Banks, credit institutions and clearing houses are expected to be Basel III complaint before 2013.

Apart from Basel III compliances, the Financial Services Liquidity Risk Management software will also enable banks to adhere to other important regulations such as Dodd-Frank Act and Individual Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Standards of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and also facilitate the internal risk management of the banks.

The Financial Services Liquidity Risk Management software can be easily integrated into existing Asset Liability Management (ALM) systems, which are already deployed within institutions, such as Oracle Financial Services Asset Liability Management. The new software provides a comprehensive set of pre-configured templates and dashboards covering the regulatory and risk management reporting requirements of a bank.

Oracle did not mention whether the software could be integrated with non-Oracle based systems, but going by what it has done in the past, we don't think that is likely.

Post the Great Recession, liquidity risk management has garnered significant attention from bankers all over the world. According to Chartis Research, the market for liquidity risk management and ALM solutions will grow to $223.0 million by 2013, driven by higher expenditures from banks in the emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa. We believe that the new software will boost Oracle's banking customer base in these emerging countries going forward.