Here at FINCAD, we have an important reason to celebrate. This month, we mark 30 years in the business of pioneering market-leading derivatives analytics software for our capital markets clients. In my view, this is a remarkable accomplishment, particularly considering the fast-paced and, at times, extremely volatile nature of our business.
I’ve been working at FINCAD for 20 years now. During that span I have seen the company grow, adapt and innovate to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients and our industry. When I joined FINCAD during the dot-com buzz of 2000, it was quite an exciting time. It was great to have the opportunity to be involved with shaping the new direction of FINCAD analytics and technology. I still have the golf shirt with the fincad.com logo on it to prove it.
The early 2000s marked the preliminary years of FINCAD’s web applications and an expansion and enhancement of FINCAD’s original function library. New exotic products had been emerging continuously during this time. This trend ultimately led to FINCAD initiating development of a flexible framework for representing and analyzing these complex instruments– without having to write a new function each time there was a new payoff, embedded option, or contingent trigger.
Moving further along FINCAD's timeline, we saw the Credit Crisis of 2008 occur. In its aftermath, there was a return to simpler products, and an increased focus on areas like counterparty credit risk, XVAs, capital adequacy, scenario analysis, and multi-curve frameworks. As a team, we also worked to deliver higher level functionality that was added to enable business solutions to be put together without getting bogged down in the analytics.
The latest trends today at FINCAD are reflective of our clients’ needs and the direction of the industry. As such, we are focused on helping our clients to use standard Python tools together with FINCAD's versatile analytics in order to get better control and precision over managing their portfolios. We’re also upping the ante through offering cloud-native processes, and robust toolsets and web services that simplify our clients’ business processes and workflows.
Additionally, those that have followed our blog may also be aware of our increased focus on preparing clients for the many challenges ushered in by the discontinuation of the LIBOR benchmarks, and the subsequent transition to new alternative risk-free rates (ARRs). This has been an issue we have been on the forefront of, working to guide and prepare our clients for this massive industry shift. Thankfully because of the centralized and flexible nature of FINCAD analytics and technology, moving to the new ARR’s will be a less painful process for our clients. For example, flexible curve-building, and the ability to handle all the potentially complex rules for compounding overnight rates, are important features that are available.
Apart from our market-leading analytics and powerful supporting technology, the people at FINCAD have been a key part of our success over the last 30 years. I am thankful to be working alongside an incredible team of very smart, driven and hardworking individuals who manage to maintain a sense of humor– all while leading the design of robust derivatives solutions. And while we remain working remotely at the moment because of precautions taken in regards to the pandemic, we continue to collaborate freely and maintain our spark as a coherent team working hard towards shared values and goals.
Though times have changed over the years and our analytics have evolved, one thing that remains the same at FINCAD, is our steadfast commitment to helping our clients succeed. Time and time again we hear from clients how they value our expert and helpful client support team, including how they go the extra mile to help out wherever possible. And, in my opinion, this is something to really be proud of.
Let’s raise a (virtual) glass for FINCAD. And here’s to 30 more.
