Chartis has named SAS a category leader in its 2015 RiskTech Quadrant for enterprise stress testing systems. To capture this top ranking, SAS - the leader in business analytics software and services in the Middle East, not only showcased the necessary depth of domain knowledge and technology, it also proved capable of capturing significant market share, both by volume and value.

Stress testing has been a part of risk management for years. But the systems, processes and controls firms were using leading up to the financial crisis clearly fell short, leaving them unprepared and, in many cases, undercapitalized. New regulatory requirements and standards now have financial institutions treating their stress-testing capabilities as essential processes rather than one-off compliance exercises.

Sayantan Banerjee, Head of Risk Management, MEA at SAS said: Stress testing is slowly becoming a part of life for every bank in the Middle East. However, the percentage of banks who acknowledge making any changes to their capital and risk appetite strategy as a result of stress testing is still low compared to the GSIB's.

In addition, Banerjee highlighted that in the light of Basel III, for Middle East banks, current oil price drop and stagnating real estate place greater emphasis on the banks to hold high-quality liquid assets (HQLA), such as government debt. Currently, the Middle East debt markets are not consistently deep enough to provide that sort of liquidity. Hence, it becomes very important to have a robust stress testing framework.

Immature stress testing can cause regulatory scrutiny of accuracy and processes. Also, banks incur costs for missed opportunities and wasted resources through laborious, manual operations that fail to reap data for other business initiatives. SAS Stress Testing solution is a fantastic solution providing an efficient way to evaluate scenarios, manage data and make strategic business decisions. More importantly, once can run their revenue and loss scenarios in one platform, giving them a greater transparency of the entire process. concluded Banerjee.

Integrated enterprise-wide stress testing is now a necessity, said Peyman Mestchian, Managing Partner at Chartis. Technology solutions that can deliver on data quality needs and easily merge with existing systems are helping to break down silos. SAS delivers on most of those needs with coordinated, systematic support ranging from data management to modeling to reporting, allowing for greater agility.

According to Chartis, financial institutions must overcome three key challenges when implementing stress testing: methodology, infrastructure (data and IT), and governance. SAS integrated stress-testing solution consolidates revenue and loss models onto a single platform, enabling orchestration and transparency across the entire stress-testing process. The results support independent reviews and validation of global regulators capital planning exercises (e.g., CCAR, EBA), while also improving business decision making.

Earlier this year, SAS clinched the No.1 spot in Chartis prestigious 2015 RiskTech100 report annual rankings, including category wins for core technology, innovation, banking and insurance within the vertical sector and for financial crime.

Read the SAS highlights from the Chartis Enterprise Stress Testing Systems 2015 RiskTech Quadrant report and learn more about SAS stress testing solutions.