FBC has a strong track record of supporting its clients in Assessment of Value (AoV) reviews, arguably a subset of the bigger theme of product governance, an ongoing process within fund management firms. We are expanding our focus to look at product governance and distribution governance in response to increasing FCA attention in these areas and to help our members and clients get onto the ‘front foot’ when it comes to the FCA’s new Consumer Duty. Alongside our corporate membership programme, which includes regular events with regulators, FBC advises and consults with both members and non-member firms on a range of product and distribution governance topics and challenges that their fund boards are addressing.
In 2023 we will also be adding a new area of focus on Operations Governance, with the development of a series of initiatives on the governance of fund operations
Three years on from the publication of the first Assessment of Value (AoV) reports, FBC has explored how implementing AoV has impacted authorised fund managers.
FBC offers three levels of Assessment of Value reviews, from the AoV Review with an FBC expert (included with corporate membership) to a full Assurance Review with feedback aligned to regulatory requirements.
Our unique databank of over 250 AoV reports. This service is regularly updated and available on–demand exclusively for FBC corporate members.
Highly customisable review of the fund board effectiveness and efficiency, tailored to the specific requirements of an individual fund.
Expert led and available as a bespoke and off-the-shelf service, our training is designed specifically for fund board members including executive and non-executive directors. and senior executives who support the board on a regular basis.
FBC will be developing a series of initiatives to support fund boards in discharging their service provider oversight duties. This includes a detailed research study exploring this topic, findings from which will be shared with FBC members and will form the basis for a series of dedicated, bespoke Service Provider Oversight workshop sessions and benchmarking.
In 2023, FBC will be conducting research into key aspects of how fund boards are approaching risk management oversight including areas such as operational resilience and liquidity risk.
Distribution oversight has become an increasingly important topic on the fund governance agenda in the UK and across Europe. In Luxembourg and Ireland there are clear regulatory expectations that must be adhered to and, most recently, the UK’s new Consumer Duty announced last month (July 2022), includes a strong focus on consumer understanding and consumer support. Distributor oversight will be key to meeting these new obligations, especially as most funds are distributed through intermediaries and platforms in the UK.
The FBC Report: Distribution Oversight Key Questions and Best Practices includes unique proprietary research covering distribution oversight across multiple fund structures. The research was undertaken via in-depth interviews with both executive and non-executive directors sitting on fund boards, as well as with other related professionals across functional areas. The fieldwork for the FBC Report: Distribution Oversight covered the three key money centres of Europe: the UK, Luxembourg and Ireland, following initial interviews highlighting that many fund groups with UK and ‘offshore’ UCITS fund ranges sought to apply a holistic approach to governance across all their fund ranges.
The report contains findings in key areas including:
Read some key excerpts of paper here.
FBC welcomes back Sebastjan Smodis from State Street Global Advisers who we spoke with in 2021 on the theme of a ‘liquidity risk playbook’ which firms could use to manage fund liquidity. FBC corporate members can view this on demand in the FBC member portal here.
A lot has happened in the year since we last spoke with Sebastjan, with market volatility and geopolitics certainly making sure that firms will have been putting their liquidity risk playbooks to good use!
In this podcast, Brandon Horwitz, FBC Senior adviser, discussing with Sebastjan how fund managers have been reacting to events over the past year including: the impact of the Ukraine war, rising interest rates and inflation (and the impact on fixed income investments) and the continuing impact of Covid-19. Another key theme is the role of fund boards in overseeing liquidity management activities in the past year, including how they have interacted with executive teams in and outside of board meetings.
May 2022
At this FBC members digital event. FBC adviser Simon Hynes, was joined by three distribution experts:
To view the recording of the event and related materials, click here.
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