Due Diligence Matters – July 2024
perfORM is an award-winning, international (UK, Switzerland, USA (and coming soon, Hong Kong)) and standalone Operational Due Diligence solutions provider with 100+ years of collective ODD experience.
Whilst late July and August are often considered a quieter time for business, we remain fully engaged in supporting our clients with On-Demand ODD, be it new / initial reviews, monitoring or otherwise. In addition, we will soon be announcing a further 3 Investment Manager ODD Report Solution clients.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss our services, or to receive sample ODD Reports. Nearly 250 operational due diligence reviews have been completed since the start of 2023.
Missed the last e-bulletin? Click here for the June 2024 edition.
Service Provider oversight continues to gain momentum
Back in November 2023, led, in part, by increasing regulatory scrutiny and a significant trend towards outsourcing middle and back-office operations, we suggested that now was the time for firms to get on top of service provider oversight.
In the last 6 months we have been commissioned on multiple assignments across multiple sectors and the trend identified at the end of last year has accelerated further into 2024.
What type of service providers typically come up?
Fund administrators feature significantly and tend to be those firms that are relatively unknown. However, interestingly we see large, well known administrators in the mix too. Anecdotally, our work has witnessed a large and well respected administrator fail to undertake their duties fully and in keeping with the fund administrator agreement. Other service providers include crypto (digital asset) custodians, lenders, exchanges, online technology solutions for treasury management, outsourced technology platforms, online prime brokerage solutions and many more. This represents a diverse group of firms for which our team have the skill sets to take on.
Who is interested in service provider reviews and why?
Again, a broad range of clients are using our ODD expertise to supplement their own internal oversight arrangements. This ranges from allocators to managers and service providers themselves.
Service provider oversight methodology – going further than traditional ODD
ODD reviews in the industry rarely include sample testing which, incidentally, is the backbone of every SOC/ISAE review. However, our clients benefit from us sample testing and we find that this is a highly valuable approach. Targets of our reviews are required to demonstrate and attest through testing that the procedures and controls that are designed to be in place are actually operating. For example for fund administrators, we test that management fees are being calculated correctly and examine that the work that going into striking a NAV has followed correct procedures.
Outcomes
Each of our ODD reports provide clients with a clear description of the service provider, the team that supports their own account / relationship, the controls and procedures operating and the degree to which they are being followed using our sample testing methodology.
For more details and information regarding our Service Provider due diligence services please get in touch.
ODD Report Solution
Our ODD Report Solution is not just another tick in a box, it is an innovative approach to operational due diligence. A pragmatic solution for Investment Managers and Service Providers which engage us to complete an ODD review.
Digital Asset Service Provider: Copper Technologies (Switzerland) AG – please contact here to request access to our April 2024 dated ODD Report
Investment Manager: Hyperion Decimus, LLC – please contact here to request access to our March 2024 dated ODD Report
Investment Manager: Coral Cove Capital Ltd – please contact here to request access to our January 2024 dated ODD Report
Investment Manager: MARK Capital Management LP – please contact here to request access to our November 2023 dated ODD Report
Investment Manager: Wincent Capital Management Limited – please contact here to request access to our September 2023 dated ODD Report
Investment Manager: Hivemind Capital Partners UK LLP – please contact here to request access to our September 2023 dated ODD Report