Client Spotlight: Inside One of the Credit Crisis' Thought Leaders

Industry thought leader Institutional Risk Analytics (IRA) is best known for its work as a bank ratings provider and finance industry commentator. IRA's co-founders, Chris Whalen and Dennis Santiago, are familiar faces to many who've watched television coverage of the credit crisis. The Torrance, CA-based company collects, distills and sells risk and stress information on the U.S. banking industry.

IRA applies a powerful battery of proprietary tests to distill raw data and render transparent the stresses affecting the safety and soundness of financial institutions. The company's findings are delivered to IRA's Advisory Service clients as well as to subscribers of IRA's online rating and surveillance product, the IRA Bank Monitor. The company embraces Web 2.0 and e-Commerce delivery, enabling anyone anywhere to buy IRA reports.

The company continues to improve its technology base. They recently completed a systems upgrade to pull and analyze data directly from the FDIC as fast as bank CALL reports are filed. This upgrade provides IRA clients with as much as a three-week delivery timeline improvement in ratings indicators.

IRA uses Morningstar data to supplement its data when supplying business-to-business customers with customized output for user business-case specific dashboard purposes. IRA's dashboard system architecture has been used to develop and, at times, host large enterprise systems and web publishing applications. "We like using Morningstar because it's easy to work with to demonstrate the business case functionality for our customers," says IRA CEO Dennis Santiago. IRA uses Morningstar data to power the online version of its IRA Corporate Monitor that their online customers can purchase as a service upgrade. More information about Institutional Risk Analytics may be found at http://www.institutionalriskanalytics.com .

By the end of 2009, we will also have fundamental data for companies traded on exchanges in Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East.

We will continue to actively grow our equity database coverage, and are open to client suggestions for future areas of emphasis.

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