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This page describes projects
that we have been involved with and illustrates the range of our services. Click a topic in the following table to jump to
a project description.
| IT – Business process change in investment management |
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The
assignment
An investment management company had a major project
whereby all of its investment management administration, custody,
settlement and banking, formerly done in-house, were to be outsourced.
Additionally, all systems retained in-house required for trading
and financial accounting were to be replaced and straight through
processing with the outsourcing partner adopted. We provided a consultant to assist the business process change
stream and subsequently, the IT development team. The brief was to document existing processes, complete and document
the requirements analysis for interim and end-state solutions, produce
functional analyses for the IT development and participate in testing.
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Consultancy
roles
Working closely
with the client’s business areas, the outsourcing partner and one of the
big 4 accountancy firms, we were involved in the following areas as
business analysts:
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Financial
Control and tax – including general ledger changes, controls and
reconciliation;
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treasury
and cash management, including FX;
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Swift
messaging;
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browser
based and other reporting systems;
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browser
based standing order system and;
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producing the project plan for the eventual
decommissioning of the legacy investment accounting systems and processes.
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Regulatory
- a business critical project
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The
assignment
The
Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) had, as part of its regular
review programme, inspected a broker. The result of the inspection
was that the broker was found to be in breach of the FSA’s ‘know your
client’ regulations and further, that the client records were not
adequate to support on-going compliance. In consequence, the broker
was given four months to comply; failure so to do would lead to the
imposition of a large fine and/ or the broker being suspended from
conducting business. The FSA further required that the remedial work
be audited and appointed one of the ‘big 4’ firms of accountants to
conduct this audit and to sign-off, or not, that the remedial work met the
directive’s standards.
With 3 months left to the deadline, they decided
to use us as the interim project manager.
Project
plan
Working
closely with the Finance Director, who was also responsible for
operations, the interim manager quickly produced a project plan to
complete the main tasks:
- Day to day processes, such as taking on new clients
and managing existing client assets, had to continue with minimal
disruption – the revenue stream had to be protected.
- Review all the many thousands of client records –
create a small MS Office application to add structure and control to
this and other tasks;
- Obtain additional evidence to support client investment and risk
classifications, including those needed to meet money-laundering
regulations;
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Project
plan (cont'd)
- Reclassify clients as necessary and weed-out inactive
clients;
- Mail-shot all clients, the format dependent on the
regulatory client classification, for confirmation of status;
- Update client records, both paper files and databases
(the broker outsourced its transaction processing). Of paramount
importance here was that the client relationship executives were aware
of any changes in client status and risk profile and invested
accordingly.
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Complete, for future implementation by the
broker, a proposal for restructuring the Client Records Department and
to introduce processes and controls to ensure that, in the future,
records were maintained to the required standard.
Execution
To
complete the project within the very tight timetable, all areas of the
business, from the Chairman down, were mobilised to support the project.
The Client Records department, Compliance, the outsourcing administrator
and the IT department, working with the interim manager and some
invaluable temporary staff and seconded trainees, primarily executed the
project. However, all areas of the business were co-opted, in
particular the client executives who had the direct client relationships.
Objective
achieved
The
directive was met and signed-off for the FSA by its auditor by the due
date. The objective was achieved despite the tight timetable and
other factors such as the project falling over the summer holiday period.
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Forensic,
investigation
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The
assignment
An investment bank had acquired the emerging market activities of another
bank. Shortly after acquisition, the newly acquired division engaged
in frenetic trading, considerably above the usual volumes. A
substantial number of the trades failed on settlement, or were delayed, at
the sub-custodians and the internal reconciliation processes also broke
down. The brief was to reconcile the transactions and positions,
establish which parties were at fault and if necessary produce evidence
for claim against sub-custodians and agents. |
Execution
& objective achieved
The positions were reconciled – a significant part of this process was
automated using MS Excel – and fault established. The evidence of
the losses occasioned by sub-custodians was presented to the bank’s
legal department, who, on the basis of the evidence, submitted a
substantial claim against the custodians for recompense of loss.
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Procedures,
controls & operating manual
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| A PEP provider, for one of its plans, partly for regulatory
reasons but also to meet proposed operational changes, needed existing
operating procedures to be fully documented. Further, it required
recommendations for new and effective controls and procedures including
reconciliation processes. We were able to assist by fully
documenting the existing procedures and recommending new procedures within
a short timescale.
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Other
- Year 2000 |
| We carried out Year 2000 projects for two clients. In
addition to the usual assessment of year 2000 readiness of suppliers and
systems and the attendant remedial work, we also undertook business
continuity planning. The business continuity planning, linked with
the review and upgrading of the client’s disaster recovery programme and
site, included developing an MS Office application that would have enabled
the client to continue high volume trading and the recording of
transactions in the event that primary systems or outsourcing partners
failed. These plans were reviewed and accepted without comment by
the FSA as part of its year 2000 readiness audits.
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