The two vendors are collaborating to streamline the data processes that are key to GIPS verification.
Vendors Eagle Investment Systems and ACA Compliance Group (ACA) are collaborating to offer services that will help financial services firms streamline the verification process for the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) that govern investment performance.
The collaboration will leverage Eagle’s data management, performance measurement and attribution solutions and ACA’s subject matter expertise, officials say.
The CFA Institute oversees the GIPS process of voluntary reporting guidelines “based on the principles of full disclosure and fair representation of investment performance,” officials say.
Meeting the GIPS specifications requires data from providers such as Eagle while ACA offers a verification service in addition to its solutions for regulatory compliance, financial crime, and cybersecurity.
The new collaboration will focus on ways to standardize the datasets that firms need for GIPS reporting in a bid to make verification more efficient for firms that use ACA’s offerings. The duo will focus on the data collection, packaging and reporting processes that are part of the annual verification workflows of clients common to both vendors, officials say.
“By standardizing the data that is extracted through Eagle’s Performance Measurement system, we’ve increased the efficiency of the data flow, creating a faster and more accurate solution for clients who depend on ACA to process their GIPS verification. The time savings our clients will achieve in responding to our data requests will be significant,” says Justin Guthrie, head of performance services for ACA.
The collaboration will serve as “a simple solution” to the verification process, says Mark Goodey, a senior principal of investment analytics for Eagle, in a prepared statement.
“Eagle has worked with ACA to create a set of data extracts and reports that simplify the process of retrieving the data ACA requires for their verification process,” Goodey tells FTF News. “This is an offering that clients can access to gather, validate and help with the transfer of data to ACA to support the verification process,” he adds.
Eagle clients can access the new collaboration/verification process now.
“This offering is currently available as a service to Eagle clients who use the GIPS offering,” Goodey says. “Eagle’s professional services (consulting) team will work directly with clients to configure the offering. Interested clients should contact their Eagle Relationship Manager. Once configured the data extractions and reports are available to run as needed during the verification process.”
Eagle developed the offering with the help of its clients, and both ACA and Eagle will be providing customer support for any problems with the new service.
“An asset manager’s compliance with GIPS standards has become a necessity in order to have credibility with investors. Through streamlining the data collection process, we’re helping our clients provide the kind of transparency that is expected today,” Goodey says.
Beyond the better workflow and greater transparency, the collaboration is intended to help asset managers “stay ahead of the changes to the GIPS standards coming in 2020 and beyond,” officials add.
The 2020 Edition for GIPS stems from a consultation paper “that outlines big picture changes we are considering for the 2020 edition of the GIPS standards,” according to CFA Institute officials via the GIPS website.
“Although part or all of 85 out of the top 100 asset managers in the world are GIPS compliant, there has not been widespread adoption among alternative investment managers and managers of pooled funds. We believe the current GIPS standards can be improved to facilitate such adoption,” according to CFA Institute officials. “We must, therefore, examine the underlying causes for not adopting the standards among these types of managers and respond by updating, revising, and reimagining the GIPS standards. We are calling this project GIPS 20/20 to reflect that we hope to have the project completed by 2020 and, more important, that it is our vision for the future.”
Eagle Investment Systems is a subsidiary of BNY Mellon, which as of June 30, 2018, had $33.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.8 trillion in assets under management, officials say.
ACA’s offerings include standard and customized compliance packages; cybersecurity, anti-money laundering (AML), and risk assessment services; GIPS verification and other performance services; and business advisory and technology solutions, officials say.
(For more updates on GIPS compliance, attend the GIPS workshop at PME 2018 in London, 26-27 September 2018.)
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