New Versions Add Even More Power to MIAC Analytics
MIAC launches two new software versions with more analytic power.



Paul Van Valkenburg Principal

MIAC is proud to start off 2007 with new versions of two of the most powerful and widely used software tools in the industry - WinOAS™ and MIAC-ALM/VAST™. These products are currently being used to value and hedge over $4.0 trillion in mortgage assets, and are deployed in a variety of ways: from stand-alone laptops to integrated departmental implementations to 600-CPU distributed processing environments, with all users benefitting from the powerful analytical tools and features of these models.

WinOAS is the mortgage industry’s standard-bearer for whole loan and mortgage servicing rights pricing. WinOAS Version 4.1 Service Pack 1 was launched in January with a new round of features and capabilities. Version 4.1 SP 1 supports:

• Fully validated 3-Factor HJM Libor Market Model term structure model;
• Enhanced assumption audit trail features;
• Enhanced permissions control;
• Enhancements to Payment Option ARMs cash flow analytics;

WinOAS was the first software to allow mortgage banking risk analysts to model cash flows and then copy the data into any spreadsheet for additional analysis. But according to MIAC principal and managing partner Paul Van Valkenburg, Excel spreadsheets are not the way SOX-compliant (Sarbanes-Oxley) companies will operate in the future.

“We’ve focused a great deal on SOX compliance with this new release of WinOAS,” he said. “Our software has always provided great controls when it comes to risk analysis but it also is highly flexible and user controlled. In today’s environment, you want that flexibility, but our clients are also very conscious of the need to create audit trails of their assumptions and to tightly control the permissions granted to junior analysts in the firm,” Van Valkenburg said.

The new version of WinOAS makes it easier for companies to track historical assumptions and explain to regulators how the company’s understanding of its risk exposure is changing. The software makes it easy to control its processes and report on exactly how it is doing so at the touch of a button.

“SOX-compliance is critical in the mortgage banking space,” Van Valkenburg said, “but it doesn’t have to be difficult.”

Other enhancements to WinOAS include updated models for payment option ARMs and other hybrid ARMs. These new loan products are very popular now, but many are based on indices that are difficult to model. Version 4.1 SP1 can now accurately model all aspects of these loans to provide mortgage banks with accurate cash flows and quantify credit risk exposure.

“Companies won’t have to rely on anecdotal evidence to guesstimate what will happen to the ARMs in their portfolios,” Van Valkenburg said. “We have much better models now, including a bullet-proof LIBOR model and even a great model for estimating the future of the Moving Treasury Index. Our advanced Z-Spread, N-Spread, and I-Spread benchmark pricing and whole loan pricing is absolutely the best in the industry.”

Finally, WinOAS now has better integration with MIAC’s other industry-leading tools, such as DataRaptor, MarketShield and MIAC’s Bond Agent, a Senior/Sub securitization model.

“The new integration of loan level pricing and cash flows is going to be huge for our customers working in secondary marketing,” Van Valkenburg said. “Now our clients can accurately model loan level pricing versus loan level execution in order to maximize their profits at the same time they minimize their risk exposure.” For more information about WinOAS surf to www.MIACAnalytics.com. For a complete explanation of all of the new functionality built into WinOAS V4.1 SP1, call 212-233-1250.

But WinOAS isn’t the only MIAC product that has been enhanced in 2007. DataRaptor, the company’s next-generation data handling tool has also been upgraded. DataRaptorTM is a loan level data manager that will efficiently load, audit, configure, aggregate, view, and create reports for all mortgage assets. DataRaptor is highly configurable and facilitates customized data solutions.

DataRaptor is the first data-handling tool developed specifically for the mortgage industry and as such as some unique features that make it perfect for working with SQL Server but also accepting data from any ODBC data source, pre-configuring default MSR and Whole Loan templates with audit rules, creating data audit rules and much more.

DataRaptor’s intuitive, interactive interfaces allow pooling configurations to be created quickly and easily...making it the perfect tool to handle electronic data delivery (EDI) and Agency data interfaces.

But perhaps most exciting is the addition of built-in OLAP capabilities, which allows users to view their data at multiple levels, and multiple dimensions, simultaneously. Secondary Market Managers love this truly dynamic ad-hoc reporting capability, which even allows them to instantly drill-down to the loan-level detail. For information about DataRaptor, surf to http://www.MIACAnalytics.com.