In the large majority of occupations across all economic sectors, not all tasks are the same. Not only these do not carry homogenous value in terms of productivity, but they also mobilise people’s own skills to very, very different extents. The investment and banking industry, in this sense, absolutely makes no exception.

In our recent blog series (1, 2, 3), we addressed step-by-step how to achieve compliance in depositary banking through automation, saving money at the same time. Here we take a look at a rather more human advantage provided by Regulatory Technology (RegTech).

Let Depowise take charge of running the shadow Net Asset Value (NAV) reconciliation process you need. All the while, users win back the possibility to focus on more interesting duties that truly require the attention of their highly qualified, personal skills.

A routine job requiring accuracy and timeliness

Whether we see it from either the asset manager or depositary bank perspective, NAV reconciliation is by all means a routine job. Yes, it involves a certain degree of competence and ability to retrieve and match the necessary data with numbers in funds. But let’s say, it is not really the activity we look forward to doing as we open eyes in the morning.

Nonetheless, the NAV reconciliation process is an essential point in effective fund and asset management. It is also one of the core elements depositary banks need to look into when performing their compliance and auditing functions. Either case, despite the common and conventional nature of the activity, the highest level of attention to detail must be ensured under all circumstances.

In the NAV reconciliation process, accuracy is key. However, three elements risk to undermine confidence in numbers:

• The large amount of data sources that need to be checked to retrieve constantly changing information on shares, securities, dividends.
• Reporting and updating cash balances and asset classes involving so-called alternative investments.
• The mere fact that humans and Excel sheets currently are the most utilised resources to complete NAV reconciliation, and they are naturally prone to mistakes. These might be small, hopefully harmless, but they still happen.

In addition, the NAV reconciliation process takes time. And if we consider that it is a basic task to perform even daily, in many cases, then we can all raise an eyebrow at the number of hours that go into it on a weekly or monthly basis.

How automation and reliance enable efficient NAV reconciliation process

Here is where technology comes to the rescue. When approached by customers, Net Group was faced with a rather common product development question that applies to the RegTech field too: why commit human and economic resources to tasks that can be easily performed by software?

The answer to that question was Depowise, and one of its core features is a NAV reconciliation tool. On a timeline, asset and fund management itself comes before the auditing and compliance moment. Choosing Depowise to keep your numbers always at a glance, the software runs all necessary checks in the background, ensuring accuracy and NAV reconciliation in just 2 seconds.

Public market data is automatically retrieved from trusted official sources such as Bloomberg and Reuters for shares, dividends, securities. Where the integration with fund’s cash quotas and the valuation of alternative investments is required, the platform allows users to upload Excel sheets and other necessary documents.

So while all data gets standardised, allowing for an easier and faster NAV reconciliation process, the highly customisable interface safeguards funds’ individual requirements and rules in terms of tolerable margins of error.

Accounted for the automation and customisation dimensions, another strong suit of Depowise is the breakdown of all relevant NAV reconciliation tasks into different sub-components. Dìvide et ìmpera (“divide and rule”), the Romans said first. Taking up that maxim, Depowise allows users to govern their own data efficiently and effectively, in a comfortable and safe software environment. From holdings, price, and cash, to FX, fees, pending trades, and other assets and liabilities, everything that matters is constantly kept well under control.

Focus only on what matters, let Depowise do the rest

NAV reconciliation process is as fundamental as it can be subject to avoidable and unnecessary mistakes. Running this process in-house can be costly both in terms of time and human resources. And sure, you can think of outsourcing it to another company or service provider. But why do so when you can still have it under your own control, with a vital helping hand coming from technology?

Depowise allows fund managers and depositary banks to save operational costs, as well as those deriving from messing up such routine work. Process stays your own, strategy and investment choices too. Letting Depowise do the tedious work, you can concentrate better on these elements. The software will let you know every time your action is required. But for the time being, users are guaranteed that data accuracy and compliance are ensured at all times.