I've worked in the Basel II / III credit risk field for a number of years using both off-the-shelf and custom-built solutions. In my experience, because regulatory requirements vary so much from country to country inevitably you are going to end up building a lot of custom code regardless of the off-the-shelf versus custom approach. It goes without saying that SAS is my tool of choice.
Personally I prefer custom-built systems rather than trying to modify existing ones for new requirements. It can take longer to modify an existing solution than to build one from scratch.
You can use Base SAS to do asset classing - EM is not necessary. The important thing is to understand your local regulatory rules, and the banking data you are working with so you can apply the rules correctly. You will find that most of your time will be spent finding, collecting and preparing the data you require. The actual calculations are simple, as Standardised Basel just involves applying risk weights to credit-rated lending.
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