Leading Advisory Firms Form Alliance to Provide Tailored Risk Advisory and Educational Services to Energy, Commodity and Financial Firms in Brazil

Black Swan Risk Advisors and Ascent Financial Technologies enter into Strategic Partnership to provide leading risk advisory and educational services to Brazilian Energy, Commodity and Financial Firms.

Berkeley, CA, June 21, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Black Swan Risk Advisors, LLC, a leading enterprise wide risk management advisory and educational services firm, has entered into a strategic partnership with Ascent Financial Technologies to provide advisory and educational services to Brazilian energy, commodity and financial services firms.

Ascent will customize BSRA’s leading financial risk management advisory services and workshops to the Brazilian energy and financial markets. BSRA services are built on the combination of leading-edge applied research with the practical experience gained by developing, implementing and explaining market and counterparty risk models and solutions for a wide variety of institutions worldwide.

Carlos Blanco, Managing Director of BSRA said: “Ascent’s has shown that they are one of the market leaders in Brazil providing customized risk solutions based on their in-depth knowledge of the Brazilian financial and energy markets. We are looking forward to working closely with them to assist Brazilian firms in improving their risk management processes and provide an added-value service by putting advanced risk management tools into action.”

Alberto Suen, Managing Director of Ascent said: “We are very pleased to join efforts with BSRA to address Brazilian financial and energy markets needs. BSRA is a world class leading enterprise wide risk management advisory and educational services company and its in-depth US and global experience will bring much needed state-of-the art tools for Brazilian companies.”

Customized Risk Advisory and Education Services

The educational services will combine Ascent’s experienced risk professionals with BSRA’s risk and finance workshops and training material developed for some of the leading energy and financial services firms worldwide. BSRA workshops are aimed at developing critical thinking skills using innovative teaching techniques including up-to-date case studies and software exercises and a strong focus on “learning by doing.”

The joint advisory services will include technical risk reviews for derivatives trading operations as well as energy and financial firms, derivatives valuation and benchmarking services and risk model development and validation for firms operating in Brazilian energy and financial markets.

About Black Swan Risk Advisors, LLC

Black Swan Risk Advisors, LLC is risk management educational and advisory services firm. The firm provides assistance with the design, development, and validation enterprise risk management programs.

About Ascent Financial Technologies
Ascent Financial Technologies is a risk management consulting services firm, a company of Ascent Brasil group. The firm provides consulting with the development of internal models for enterprise risk management programs.

http://www.ascent.com.br/

For more information about the workshops, please contact Alberto Suen at alberto.suen@ascent.com.br (www.ascent.com.br) or Carlos Blanco at services@blackswanrisk.com (www.blackswanrisk.com)

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Black Swan Risk Advisors
Carlos Blanco
510-333-5363
www.blackswanrisk.com
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