S&P Buys CMBS Software Firm

NEW YORK CITY-Standard & Poor’s, the financial information and credit ratings firm based here, has acquired Charter Research Corp., the developer of Conquest, an analysis and product pricing software for the CMBS market. Using a proprietary credit model based on the interactive effects of interest rates, the capital markets and other factors this product can forecast commercial mortgage behavior, and ultimately, bond behavior.

“This acquisition will foster greatly enhanced risk-management practices, and, ultimately, greater liquidity for commercial mortgage portfolios within the $1.3 trillion US commercial real estate market,” says Joanne W. Rice, executive managing director of S&P’s Structured Finance Group.

Each year, the top 70 US banks spend between $2 million and $15 million on credit risk management. For fiscal 2000, total spending for global risk management for all financial services companies is estimated to be in excess of $1.4 billion. Five years from now, that figure is projected to rise to more than $3.4 billion.