AI and analytics company SAS has acquired Kamakura Corporation. The latter is a privately held company that offers specialised software solutions, and data and consulting services for banks, insurance companies, pension funds, asset managers, and other financial organisations. Two of Kamakura’s main offerings are – Kamakura Risk Manager, a fully integrated risk management system for ALM; Kamakura Risk Information Services (KRIS), a SaaS tool for credit risk data and analytics.

With this acquisition, SAS aims to deliver a suite of integrated risk solutions with a focus on asset-liability management and to serve additional facets of the financial services industry. SAS co-founder and CEO Jim Goodnight said, “This acquisition is an extension of tremendous investments already made in SAS’ cloud-ready risk management platform and integrated solutions. It signals our intent to advance market-changing risk solutions to solve the most pressing challenges our financial services customers face. We foresee that the resulting strength of SAS technology, paired with Kamakura’s risk analytics and credit models, will prove far greater than the sum of its parts.”

Kamakura chairman and CEO Don van Deventer, who founded the company in 1990, said that SAS aligns with his company’s “data-driven, research-oriented cultures and their mutual excellence in modelling and analytics.” He further said that adding SAS’ cloud-native Viya technology, risk domain capabilities, and user-friendly interfaces to Kamakura’s IP will help in creating a ‘top-tier market-changing ALM offering.”