New York, NY (PRWEB) October 08, 2014
Over 250 broker dealers and independent research providers have signed up for an innovative cloud-based solution that facilitates vendor due diligence. The new service, Compliance Telescope, makes it easy for research providers to provide compliance due diligence information to all clients and prospects.
Castine Consulting LLC, a leader in FinTech software, partnered with Integrity Research Associates LLC, a consultancy that has been conducting vendor due diligence for a decade, to create the new service.
“Insider trading investigations have heightened concerns about the compliance capabilities of external research providers,” said Michael Mayhew, Integrity’s founder. “By partnering with Castine, we’ve developed a solution that saves time and effort for both sides of the equation.”
The service benefits asset managers by increasing the timeliness and accuracy of due diligence responses. They can focus on analyzing the responses rather than focusing on collecting them.
Like the college ‘common application’ that inspired the new service, research providers and brokers can complete their due diligence questionnaire once and distribute the “universal” answers to all their clients. Asset managers can add their own private questions to the universal questions.
“We’ve designed Compliance Telescope with the asset manager’s due diligence work flow in mind,” said Robin Hodgkins, Castine’s president “The platform allows hand-offs between internal groups, speeding up the signoffs from legal, compliance and the business units. We’ve also included features like the ability to highlight actionable responses, shared note-taking, and a ‘punchlist’ for follow-up items.”
For brokers and research providers, responding to multiple due diligence queries from clients is time-consuming and slows down the process of onboarding new clients. Compliance Telescope’s cloud-based questionnaire is straightforward to complete and it remembers previous responses, making the information easier to keep up-to-date.
“Compliance Telescope is as thorough as any of the client questionnaires we get, but much easier to complete than the Excel spreadsheets many clients use,” said Bruce McVey, Director of Beacon Consumer Insights, an independent provider who uses the system.
There is no cost for research providers to use the system and asset managers can access the due diligence responses at no cost. Additional features such as custom questions, approval workflow, surveillance alerts, and internal notifications of vendor status require a license fee.
For additional information about Compliance Telescope go to http://www.castinellc.com/pdf/Compliance_Telescope.pdf.
About Castine Consulting LLC
Castine Consulting LLC is a premier developer of web-based due-diligence and compensation systems for the financial services sector utilizing the latest browser and mobile technology. Castine’s principals have a 30-year track record of industry-leading systems. Founder Robin Hodgkins originated Cogent Consulting, a market leading commission management solution whose products were sold to BNY Convergex. For more information, go to http://www.castinellc.com.
About Integrity Research Associates LLC
Integrity Research Associates, LLC is an advisory firm specializing in the global investment research industry. The firm advises a select number of hedge fund and asset managers on their external research sources used to enhance investment returns, and has been conducting due diligence on external research providers for over a decade. For more information go to http://www.integrity-research.com.