Scenario
This Platform Manco / Host AIFM has c. 300 portfolios that they administer on behalf of over 60 different underlying investment managers. The portfolios range across multiple jurisdictions, including UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland. There is a mixture of UCITS and non-UCITS portfolios and also some investment trusts and other structures.
The portfolio holdings data comes in from c. 6 different fund administrators.
There are a number of funds that have extensive and complex derivatives usage.
There are a large number of different valuation points. There is also a range of multi-managed funds where there is a requirement to monitor also at the multi-manager level.
The client needed a solution, particularly for investment compliance.
What the client was looking for
The client’s current solution was expensive and inefficient. It relied heavily on the client to perform all data aggregation manually. The solution had several shortcomings, particularly in handling derivatives and multi-managed portfolios.
Why Funds-Axis were selected
The client selected Funds-Axis for a range of reasons, including:
- Our extensive expertise and reference-ability in the Platform Management / Host AIFM market
- Our record of customer service, with some clients onboard for nearly a decade
- Our clear expertise particularly in the areas of derivatives
- Our automated Data Transformation and Management
- Our fully managed service offering, including as regards all prospectus reviews, interpretation and rules coding
- The optionality for the client to extend with ease to our other modules, including Regulatory Reporting.
The perceived barriers
Before selecting Funds-Axis, the client was concerned about the potential time and cost of the implementation and the risk involved.
We overcame these barriers by offering a cost-free implementation. We assured the client that all they needed to do was to arrange for their fund administrators to provide Funds-Axis with the required data. The client also took references from a range of existing Funds-Axis’ clients to gain comfort over the proposed solution and operating model.
How things look today
Every day, on a fully automated basis, we receive data from various administrators. It is automatically ingested, and all portfolio monitoring is performed on a scheduled basis, with the client receiving results by 9am T+1 or within two hours of data receipt. Funds-Axis provides a managed service that ensures all data is fully and accurately uploaded, with all exceptions validated before being released to the client. Where new portfolios need to be set up, Funds-Axis delivers to tight service levels, including review of the prospectus, coding, and testing of all investment rules.
The relationship has now extended from the original investment compliance monitoring. We now provide the client also with Annex IV Reporting, FCA Derivatives Use reporting, Liquidity Monitoring, NAV Oversight monitoring, sanctions monitoring as well as factsheet production. We hope to extend this to KIIDs and PRIIPS KID, including all the performance and cost calculations.
