Guideline Compliance and Coding Services

Ensuring a portfolio follows the investment guidelines stated in a prospectus or specific client mandate is vital. However, keeping abreast of complex guidelines is a challenge in a fast-paced and highly regulated industry.

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Guideline Compliance Services

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We understand our clients’products – both existing and those proposed for launch – and how to determine the associated investment guidelines from all relevant sources (from internal mandates to regulatory text). Our experts document these and ensure they are coded into the relevant platforms correctly before developing the appropriate governance structure that keeps them fit for purpose.

Addressing client challenges:

Accurate interpretation, implementation, conversion and upgrade of investment mandates

Projects such as system integration and development as per requirements

Data infrastructure analysis for assimilation and solutions for desired and precise output

Expertise in third-party market-leading tools such as Bloomberg AIM, Capstone’s Sentinel, Charles River Database (CRIMS), LDC, thinkFolio and BlackRock’s Aladdin

Details of our guideline compliance and Coding services

Managed service offerings

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Managed service offerings

  • Creation of universal rules for standardisation and control

  • Creation of rule libraries for regulatory guidelines listed in, for example,the Investment Company Act of 1940, UCITS, Inv-G, SFC, MpFA, FSA and APRA

  • End-to-end review of interpretation, analysis and creation of rules based on guidelines (such as IMA, prospectus and SAI)

  • Regulatory rule specification, coding, and testing service

  • Testing and auditing for comparative analysis of output of the different rule engines

  • Hierarchy mapping, documentation and process hygiene flows

  • Rule optimisation and/or updating rules per system enhancement

  • Creation and maintenance of restricted or approved lists

Our skillset

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Our skillset

  • Extensive working knowledge and use of order management and compliance systems, e.g.,Bloomberg AIM, Capstone’s Sentinel, Charles River Database (CRIMS), LDC, thinkFolio and BlackRock’s Aladdin

  • Extensive knowledge of global regulations such as the Investment Company Actof 1940, ERISA, FINRA, the Securities Act of 1933, SFC, MpFA, FSA and APRA

  • Ability to automate and maintain compliance rules based on investment guidelines and regulations

  • Comprehensive analysis of processesand procedures to identify problem areas and find definitive solutions

  • Innovative solutions for workflow management, advance forensic metrics reporting

Technology/solutions

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Technology/solutions

  • Rule coding automation solutions

  • List update automation solutions

  • End-to-end workflow automation solutions

  • Manual rule automation solutions

  • Compliance engine migrations

  • Quality check and simulation testing for validation of rules and their output

  • Rule coding standardisation through universal rules and rule libraries

  • Scrubbing existing accounts to incorporate new logic and enhancements

Value proposition

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Value proposition

  • Implementing best industry practices for rule extraction, creation of asset trees, rule coding to standards, rule testing and documentation

  • Quality checks to ensure rule coding is consistent, accurate andin line with agreed coding standards and prospectus or client instructions

  • Systematic monitoring programme to demonstrate to regulators

  • Access to a strong talent pool with exposure to tools such as Bloomberg AIM, Capstone’s Sentinel and Charles River Database (CRIMS)

  • Organised rule library

  • Standardised rule templates

Learn how we supported a global asset manager in rule coding support for order management system migration

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Client challenge:

  • Faced challenges in migrating c.450 over 1000 portfolios to Sentinel due to unavailability of experienced resources with knowledge of Sentinel

  • The mandate was to have competent automation resources who could suggest process improvements.

Solution and value delivered:

  • Deployed 3 associates and 1 delivery supervisor with extensive knowledge of Sentinel

  • Conducted a comprehensive comparison of rules coded in the client’s legacy compliance systems with the most recent client guidelines

  • Successfully coded the agreed set of accounts in Sentinel for multiple asset classes and regions

  • Acuity’s project manager deployed at client’s HK office to coordinate the project with the client’s onshore team

  • 50-60% cost savings versus hiring consultants in expensive locations such as Hong Kong and London

  • Effective and efficient solution – the client did not have to spend man-hours to internally train resources on processes