IBM announced it has launched new and experimental services to provide developers with financial models on Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform. As a part of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, these technologies provide developers with a quick connection into the data and analytical capabilities needed to build cognitive-enabled financial apps that can evaluate the past and current value of an investment, as well as project its possible future value.
Called IBM Instrument Analytics, these new services give cloud developers easy access to tools which model the potential behaviors of certain financial assets, such as the cash flows produced throughout the life of a security, the sensitivity of an asset to various market risks, and the calculation of the value of an asset under alternate scenarios and market conditions.
These capabilities are designed to be used for a wide range of investments, including straightforward assets such as equities, fixed income and derivatives, as well as more complex assets typically held by large institutions, such as interest rate swaps and mortgage-backed securities.
These four new services, based on IBM Algorithmics risk management solutions, include:
- Instrument Analytics, for the computation and analysis of an asset’s current value;
- Historical Instrument Analytics, for the analysis of an asset’s value at a specific date in the past, such as when determining factors that had the greatest impact on profit or loss;
- Simulated Instrument Analytics, for the analysis of an asset’s current value under an alternate scenario and circumstances;
- Simulated Historical Instrument Analytics, for the computation and analysis of an asset’s value at a specific date in the past and under an alternate scenario and circumstances;
- For example, a developer could quickly build an app which would allow an investment manager to model the impact of a storm on the valuation of an oil company with high investments in offshore oil rigs, if that company were to be impacted by a hurricane.
Since these new services are on IBM Cloud, users compute and analyze all data via a simple API request, and without the need for the installation of any software. Access to these services via IBM Cloud also enables developers to use them in a pay-per-use model, opening up new use cases that may have previously been too expensive to perform rigorously.
The IBM Cloud for Financial Services offers developers the essential building blocks for the creation of financial services apps on IBM Cloud. This gives them the ability to build elements into their apps such as customer insights, regulatory compliance analytics, security, and privacy and compliance testing. More than 100,000 individual and enterprise developers from the financial services industry already turn to IBM monthly for insight and support.
Bluemix has rapidly grown to become one of the largest open, public cloud deployments in the world. Based in open standards, it features more than 150 tools and services spanning categories of cognitive intelligence, blockchain, security, Internet of Things, DevOps and more.
