What is Investment Governance?
Investment governance covers the following areas: data and processes. It all starts with having instant access to all investment data and being able to trust it. This sounds simple, but is very difficult to achieve in practice. Oversight becomes challenging without a complete and accurate view of your investment data.
After data comes robust, well-documented processes. As much as possible, we recommend exception-based processes, which means a system performs the process as long as everything goes according to plan. When an unexpected event happens, a human is alerted to resolve the issue.
Limina’s approach to investment governance optimisation
In the video below, Limina’s Chief Product Officer Joakim Saltin and Product Manager Philippe Ramkvist-Henry describe Limina’s capabilities that help asset managers improve investment oversight.
Foundations that enable improved investment governance
Three areas, in order of importance, make up the foundation of strong investment governance:
1. Portfolio views: positions & cash
At the core of investment governance is ensuring that portfolios are accurately reflected. The best approach is to leverage a 3rd generation Investment Book of Records. Serving as a single source of truth, an IBOR solution empowers investment managers with any view of their positions and cash (adjusted, simulated, settled trades only, etc).
Limina can help you ensure portfolio data accuracy and integrity by consolidating and standardising data from various sources. This provides a reliable foundation for investment oversight.
Once in place, complete investment data is leveraged for:
- Investment decision making
- Investment Operations workflows
- Ensure continuous investment compliance
If you want to learn more about IBOR, we’ve created the ultimate Investment Book of Record guide. It’s an unbiased guide, not a pitch for any specific IBOR solution.
2. Investment Data Management
Secondly, investment data management capabilities play a vital role in enhancing governance. With the right investment data management solution, investment managers can automate data validation processes.
One concrete way to control data is through so-called data quality controls. These rules are configured to warn if data is outside a given range or tolerance. Examples include:
• “Large” price movements
• Missing instrument parameters (e.g. custom ESG score)
With such controls, managers can trust the quality and reliability of their data. This is a crucial element in achieving effective investment fund governance. Reach out to see a no-strings-attached demo of Limina’s automatic data control features.
3. Enterprise Software-as-a-Service
Finally, we recommend cloud-native institutional investment management software, built for enterprise use cases. Enterprise SaaS, as it’s also called, is on one hand a cloud-native solution, leveraging the latest technology for the cloud. At the same time, it can ensure your investment data is technically isolated from other clients, something standard cloud solutions don’t offer.
In conclusion - Limina equips investment managers with a strong foundation for improved governance by leveraging:
- The power of a complete and accurate IBOR
- Data management capabilities
- Enterprise SaaS technology
Turn data into investment oversight with visualisations & dashboards
Accessing all investment data and controlling quality isn’t enough to achieve full investment oversight. You also need to transform the data into actionable insights. To this end, Limina is designed to go beyond presenting raw data in table format. We offer visualisations and dashboard views that give you a comprehensive overview of both data and processes.
Examples of dashboard use cases include high-level summaries of data quality issues, trade matching statuses, and compliance statuses per fund. These visual representations allow you to identify any areas that require attention. With that, you can make fast and informed decisions based on the information provided.
Audit and permissions are the final keys to improved investment governance
A robust governance framework is not just about data – it’s also about control and accountability. To address this, a platform shall always incorporate robust audit and permission functionalities.
With Limina, you can set granular permissions to control access to sensitive information, ensuring that only authorised individuals can view or modify data. This goes down to a level of investment strategies. Detailed audit trails are also available, enabling you to track changes, see who made them, and when they occurred.
Furthermore, investment committee governance requirements must be enforced. For example, if the committee might require a two people to confirm an order before it’s sent to marked. This feature ensures that any changes or decisions made are subject to review by multiple individuals. The purpose is to reduce the risk of human errors and protect against unauthorised actions.
Conclusion: how to improve investment management oversight
In today's investment landscape, investment managers face increasing demands for strong governance and oversight. It’s ultimately about proving to your investment committee and other stakeholders that good governance is achieved.
Limina is committed to supporting investment managers in meeting these challenges by providing advanced technology solutions. Our IBOR and data management capabilities enable a core layer of complete, accurate and timely source of truth for investment data. On top, visualisations and dashboards offer actionable insights and transparency.
By leveraging sophisticated audit, permission and approval features, investment managers can strengthen their governance practices and gain a competitive edge. Contact us today to see first-hand how Limina can help you improve governance and elevate your investment operations.
