An Overview of SAS Risk Stratum (PART ONE)

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The purpose of this post is to provide a high-level overview of the SAS Risk Stratum platform and some of its moving parts. SAS Risk Stratum is an integrated risk management platform, on which several SAS risk solutions run, and it provides a purpose-built, role-specific user experience with a single source of truth for each of these solutions. Some of these solutions include, SAS Asset Liability and Management, which employs cash flow projection and valuation methods for managing risk. SAS Solutions for IFRS9 & IFRS17 protects investments in actuarial or accounting by enabling the user to meet all the IFRS9 & IFRS17 requirements. More specifically, SAS Risk Stratum addresses the regulatory requirements and business challenges related to the calculation of Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) by integrating a set of powerful analytics for process management. These requirements are met with the help of robust data quality validation, a holistic view of balance sheets and income statements, statistical modeling, workflow templates, and disclosure reporting. It is important to note that as a part of the SAS Risk Stratum installation, many key Stratum products such as the solutions mentioned previously use the same user interface (UI). The navigational and interaction experience is similar for business users across all solutions. In short, users that are familiar with one solution can easily transfer their knowledge to another SAS Risk Stratum solution with very little ramp-up time. This also means business objects are consistent across the solutions. Analysis Data, Model, Analysis Runs, Risk Scenarios, and Workflow Templates are a few of the business objects we will discuss later. By utilizing the pre-built content and business objects for SAS Risk Stratum, the CECL content package can support the business process of: Data Staging – uses data models for input and results and uses data quality rules. Quantification – includes a powerful model implementation platform, prebuilt model constructs, and UI driven management & execution. Review and Challenge – contains intuitive dashboards with automatic attribution analysis, a streamlined workflow, and is fully auditable. Reporting – maintains prebuilt management reports with customizable allocation & aggregations. Within each SAS Solution content package for CECL also includes a prescribed workflow for end users to support their CECL analysis. The CECL planning workflow typically involves multiple groups across and institution that coordinate planning and analysis activity for different types of risk or aggregates data from those groups for regulatory submission and internal use.

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At a high level, these are the following steps for a workflow:

1. Data Processing 

Initializing the CECL cycle

Load data

2. Configure 

Master Risk Scenarios

Attribution Templates

3. Credit Risk Analysis 

Model Execution

Model Simulation

4. Reviewing Results 

Review CECL Analysis

Apply Adjustments

5. Reporting 

Generate Disclosures

Attribution Analysis

A planning workflow contains tasks that are largely automated (for example, running a model) as well as manual tasks (for example, review and sign-off). Steps in the process flow are the responsibility by specific business users. The user will need to consider the roles and capabilities for each business user --- Data Analyst, Quantitative Analyst, Manager, or Risk Analyst. The role assigned to each user will determine which steps the user can execute, and which functions are available.

Since we have delved into the functionality of SAS Risk Stratum at a high-level, we can now shift our focus to the objects that each user role will interact with in Part Two of this series.

[END OF PART ONE] 

For more information and documentation, please refer to the SAS Risk Stratum Documentation page by clicking here. "The documentation for SAS Risk Stratum is intended for use by existing customers and requires an access key. You can obtain the access key from your SAS consultant or by contacting SAS Technical Support. To expedite your request, please include SAS Risk Stratum in the subject field of the form. Be sure to provide the SAS Site Number for your software license along with your request." - SAS Risk Stratum Support

Note: Part Two will be a continuation of part one. It will include the key concepts for risk stratum such as the business objects and screenshots of the workflow in the solution.

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