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Integrated platform brings order to chaos

Pacific Fund Systems is a global leader in supporting investment fund accounting and administration through its integrated share registry/fund accounting platform, PFS-PAXUS. With fund administrators under increasing pressure from AIFMs to provide a broader suite of regulatory reporting services – most notably Annex IV reporting under AIFMD – demand has grown for integrated systems that can house fund data on a single platform. This is precisely what PFS-PAXUS offers, avoiding the need for reliance on multiple systems by utilising a single database infrastructure to deliver greater workflow efficiencies, reduced risk, and more timely valuations. 

Two years ago, to keep pace with regulatory change, Pacific Fund Systems built an automated Annex IV capability, in tandem with a FATCA reporting tool. Speaking with GFM, Paul Kneen (pictured), Chief Operating Officer, explains that the underlying philosophy behind developing the Annex IV solution was borne out of a realisation that some 70 per cent or more of the data required to be reported on in Annex IV, which contains 300 separate data fields, is already housed within PFS-PAXUS. 

"Owing to the fact that it is fully integrated, this makes it particularly attractive to our clients, and prospects, as they look to comply with the Directive. Other global fund reporting requirements such as FATCA and Form-PF can all be handled within the system and we are currently working to introduce Common Reporting Standards functionality, which will built in order to support clients when they need to start reporting next year," says Kneen.

PFS-PAXUS generates the Annex IV report in the required XML file format, which the fund administrator then shares with its clients to be sent to the relevant national regulatory authority for onward submission to ESMA. Kneen says that the solution has been well received and generated a lot of interest among clients. 

"There can be a huge cost associated with administrators developing `in-house' regulatory reporting solutions," comments Kneen. "As a technology firm, we made a conscious decision from the outset to support global regulatory reporting within PFS-PAXUS. Annex IV may be amended, to some degree by the regulator as reporting requirements develop, which might require additional system developments on our side which will take the burden off the administrator."

For fund managers and administrators alike, the current regulatory reporting environment has become a spider web of complexity. This is why technology has become such an integral part of the financial system because without Annex IV solutions such as the one developed by Pacific Fund Services, the potential for mistakes through lack of system automation, and the time it would take to file reports and remain compliant, would rise exponentially.

"We take care of managing the myriad moving parts and simplify our clients' workflows thanks to the automated nature of PFS-PAXUS. We like to think that our Annex IV solution is a user-friendly component of PFS-PAXUS. In terms of coming up with the aggregation of data, we don't have to collect it from multiple sources because the system effectively acts as a repository holding 70 per cent of the data needed for Annex IV. The administrator then only needs to collect the other 30 per cent from the AIFM, or their risk provider, to complete and generate the report in full, ready to be uploaded to the relevant regulatory body," says Kneen in conclusion. 

Market regulation has caused waves of disruption, but with enhanced data aggregation and reporting capabilities powering them in the background, systems such as PFS-PAXUS have developed solutions which allow their clients to sail in calmer waters

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