By Michael Beck, CIPM, CFP, vice president at Glenmede The Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) have been in existence since 1999 and were revised in both 2005 and 2010. They are used to promote ethics and integrity in the financial services marketplace by having voluntary compliance by asset managers. There are currently 41 country sponsors
Back-Office
Redesign Your Thinking
By Adam Sherman, Social Media Director at New York Life. Fiction Factory, a Scottish pop group from the 80s, was in rotation on Sirius XM’s New Wave channel this morning. The band’s name struck a chord with me. It turns out the music group’s moniker aptly captures the zeitgeist that is playing out in our
Back-Office
The Unknown Knowns of Vendor Risk
Guest Contributor: David Bates, Citisoft A few years ago I was intrigued by the Rumsfeld documentary “The Unknown Known”. Without getting into politics or views on the man himself, the idea of striving for continual awareness of what you know and don’t know along with how it influences your management strategy and risk is highly
Buy-Side
Cloud Computing Adoption in Asset Management
Guest Contributor: Jonathan Schapiro, Global Head of Cloud Solutions, BI-SAM These days, the term “Cloud” has become ubiquitous – even the un-savviest of technology users have a general concept of what the term alludes to. But while “the Cloud’ is really just a metaphor for the Internet, “cloud computing” means so much more – and
Back-Office
Manage Risk, Comply with Regulations and Increase Alpha with an IBOR
Guest Contributor: David Kubersky, President and Managing Director, SimCorp North America Fragmented position-keeping across the trade lifecycle presents significant risks to buy-side firms. As the SimCorp Journal paper, “The Investment Book of Record: One Version of Truth from Front- to Back-Office,” explains, “When investment processes and asset classes are supported by multiple systems across the
Buy-Side
Valuation Considerations for Illiquid OTC Derivatives
Guest Contributor: Matthew McFarland, Director, Business Development, CBOE Mandated clearing of certain interest rate swaps and credit default swaps was recently completed with the addition of Category 3 participants on September 9. While the advent of mandatory clearing presents several challenges, one aspect that has garnered little attention is valuations. OTC market participants, accustomed to valuations
Back-Office
Replacing Legacy Systems: An Opportunity for Change to Drive Better Investment Performance
Guest Contributor: David Kubersky, SimCorp North American Managing Director We have long left behind typewriters, walkmans and VHS tapes, yet millions in assets are still managed on systems that existed before Windows 1.0. The inherent characteristics of legacy systems act as major detriments to a capital markets firm’s performance. Legacy systems utilize antiquated programming languages,
Buy-Side
“What Is” GIPS?
The Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) is a set of voluntary, ethical principles that govern the reporting, valuation, advertising and disclosure issues of the funds overseen by investment management firms. The GIPS benchmarks are primarily used when investment managers present the results of their financial performance to clients or prospective clients. GIPS compliance provides prospective
Back-Office
Get Your Big Data Under Control
Guest Contributor: Mark Wickersham, Director of Product, ByAllAccounts, Inc. Mid-market asset managers drowning in compliance costs are reaching for better reconciliation systems in order to expand their AUM without collapsing their margins. For many investment management firms, new channels of product distribution bring additional back-office operational burdens: new systems to learn, different ways to retrieve
Buy-Side
Alternative Investments Survey: Get Exclusive Insights & Chance to Win $50 AmEx Gift Card
Take the Survey Now National Survey Alternative Investments: Reporting & Servicing Challenges Complete this survey to enter for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card! Take this short ByAllAccounts Q4 National Survey, conducted in conjunction with Millennium Trust Company, to see how you stack up with other alternative investment users, asset