Newsletter: Issue 30 – Q1, 2020           COVID-19: WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER           As the world and the business community navigate through this challenging time, our thoughts are with those who have been directly affected by COVID-19. The health and safety of our employees remain of utmost importance, and we continue to monitor the situations where our offices are located. We are also thankful to our clients for their support at this time, and we will continue to deliver their work with minimal business impact.                   We hope your staff, families and company are being able to navigate these challenging times and adjust to the new environment we find ourselves in. Acuity Knowledge Partners is here to assist your business as we work through these new developments. Please reach out to us with any questions you may have at contact@acuitykp.com                     FOCUS           Compliance Best Practices For Working From Home             With a large proportion of the workforce being asked to work remotely, there are obvious compliance concerns that crop up. Each company’s data is its intellectual property, and maintaining confidentiality during a BCP situation is of utmost importance.                     Adapting to the Turning Tides in Lending Risk Governance             Here is how banks’ lending and risk-governance processes could be impacted as their customers continue to grapple with the COVID-19 situation.                     Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors             Acuity offers solutions related to climate change, sustainable development goals, and ESG factors at the company, sector and country levels.                     MEDIA COVERAGE IN FORBES             The feature titled "Acuity Knowledge Partners Eyes AI to Beef Up Financial Research for Banks" covers our expertise in AI and technology, our propriety suite of tools (BEAT) and the technology business model we use to support our global clients.                     EXCLUSIVE AND ORIGINAL INSIGHTS           Lessons from the previous crisis: Risk and opportunity are two sides of the same coin   Uncovering business trends 2020 – Playbook for consulting companies   Attractive investment opportunities appear whenever market yields to prolonged indiscriminate selling. Given the current scenario, opportunities could come in distressed debt segment, high yield debt, emerging market debt and leverage lending space   Looking at business trends in 2020 from a consulting industry lens, this trend book explores the key disruptive changes transforming the operational dynamics of business and challenging the accepted know-how.         The shifting landscape of US commercial middle-market banking   Bootstrapping the asset management business in China   Access the white paper on recent and ongoing transformation in the US commercial banking landscape, especially in the middle-market sector. The paper also evaluates current challenges in the sector and reviews some of the top strategic focus areas of banks in this sector.   International firms trying to enter China’s asset management market may face challenges related to the availability of specialised talent and competition from local players. Despite these challenges, the market is lucrative enough to warrant taking the associated risks         Sustainable finance – The new frontier for investment banking growth   Rating advisory – Create a more compelling credit story   Increased global appetite for financing sustainability-driven initiatives has the potential to unlock opportunities for investment banks.   Banks/FIs face key challenges when facilitating portfolio growth and would need robust risk modelling for their reporting requirements. Learn about how data facilitation, therefore, becomes critical         Artificial intelligence (AI) in banking – Core operational cost savings vs revenue augmentation   Best-practice guide for ESG reporting   Explore how AI should be used as a human- capability enhancer rather than as a mere replacement tool. By using AI, banks could free up a large number of staff hours that could be spent on strategic work; 25% of non-routine tasks drive 85% of value creation.   ESG can be described as disclosing information publicly on a company’s performance and strategy in terms of ESG matters, in the form of an annual report or a sustainability report             Direct lending – Risks from exposure to leveraged loans (LLs) and collateralised loan obligations (CLOs)   How IMO 2020 adds to trade woes   Cracks are appearing in the LL and CLO markets: weak underwritinga standards, changing capital structures, credit rating arbitrage, default risk for lower tranches, and concentration risk.   Read about how the International Maritime Organization’s regulation, which bans ships from using fuels with sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously, controls pollution         Crude oil industry: Outlook for 2020   Will IR35 shrink demand for contractors?   Learn how black swan events continue to drive crude oil prices. The crude oil industry has seen boom and bust cycles over the past decade, affecting supply, and demand due to economic growth.   IR35 is a piece of legislation designed to stop workers from fraudulently claiming to be contractors (i.e., off payroll) for personal benefit. Know the impact on the private sector and potential options for employers             PRODUCT INNOVATIONS AT ACUITY           TombstoneHub: Automated Tombstone Generator             Explore our SaaS based solution that can help automate and create fully formatted credential slides in your PPT template instantly.                           Automated Financial Model Builder   CovenantPulse – Monitor and validate covenants with the power of dashboard reporting   This tool automatically retrieves financial statement information from company filings and populates relevant data points in standardised MS Excel templates.   An automated covenant monitoring managed service solution to streamline and enhance your current monitoring process             SOLUTIONS SHOWCASE           Fixed Income and Credit Research   Private Equity and Venture Capital   Predicting a recession or investing in distressed debt? We have you covered. Formulate your distressed debt investing strategy   Access bespoke support for regular and critical functions of the fund, such as opportunity screening, due diligence, periodic reporting, business development, and portfolio monitoring         Capital Markets Solutions for IB   Commercial Lending   Explore how our SMEs can empower your capital markets teams to close more transactions and significantly reduce the lead time required for completing regular tasks and analyses   Prospecting, origination and underwriting, and portfolio management         Investment Compliance   Consultant Database (CDB) Updates   In-depth expertise in providing compliance support services to the buy side, customised delivery solutions leveraging tried and tested methods and proprietary white-boarding techniques   EDGE, a custom-built, proprietary platform that helps automate the CDB update process, reduces turnaround time and enhances efficiency             WEBINAR ON DEMAND           The cookie crumbles for the credit cycle – Opportunities in distressed debt investing             The macro conditions seem ripe for distressed debt investors to enter and identify opportunities at an early stage.     We have learnt from the 2008-09 experience that identifying investable distressed debt opportunities is a long, drawn-out process. Listen to Acuity’s experts discuss how you can build a proprietary and scalable distressed debt investing process ahead of the cycle.                             ABOUT ACUITY KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS Acuity Knowledge Partners (Acuity), formerly part of Moody’s Corporation, is a leading provider of bespoke research, analytics, staffing and technology solutions to the financial services sector. Headquartered in London, Acuity has nearly two decades of transformation experience in servicing over 300 clients with a specialist workforce of over 2,500 analysts and delivery experts across its global delivery network. We provide our clients with unique assistance not only to innovate, implement transformation programmes and increase operational efficiency, but also to manage costs and improve top lines. These services are supported by our proprietary suite of Business Excellence and Automation Tools (BEAT) that offers domain-specific contextual technology. Acuity is assisted by Equistone Partners Europe, a leading private equity organisation that backs specialist growth businesses and management teams.           US: +1.212.553.7778 +1.212.553.8916  |  UK: +44 207 550 4499   |  contact@acuitykp.com               ©2020 Acuity Knowledge Partners. All rights reserved.