We provide fund manager identification, assessment and selection services to Institutional Investors across Europe. By adopting a rigorous, exhaustive and transparent process combined with comprehensive coverage of potential fund managers, we ensure that the most appropriate and competitive offering is identified - most closely matching our clients' requirements.

We have conducted over 300 fund manager search and selection engagements for some 150 international clients involving assets under management in excess of €45 billion.   Our client base comprises corporate and industry-wide pension schemes, public sector pension funds, insurance companies and foundations across 16 countries.

For every engagement, our collective experience and expertise and our proprietary technology are brought to bear in managing what is often a highly complex selection process. Every step of the process is tailored to the specific requirements of each individual client and ensures that fund managers propose their most appropriate and competitive offerings.

METHODOLOGY

1. Client needs analysis
Each manager selection engagement begins with a thorough analysis with our client of what they require in a fund manager - based on type of fund/mandate, approach to risk, etc. This analysis is used to put together a tailored request-for-proposal specification that is unique to the client. The initial client input at this stage ensures that it is the client's needs that remain at all times foremost in the manager selection process.

2. Request for proposals
Our collective knowledge and experience of the institutional fund management marketplace, our extensive consulting expertise and our comprehensive research and analysis are drawn together to scope out the universe of appropriate fund managers. Our proprietary IT system enables us to approach the broadest possible selection of potential providers.

3. Tender analysis
We use our technology to analyse the submissions as well as "scrub" and recalculate the performance and risk metrics from raw data. Where comparability issues are identified, we communicate with the fund managers to eliminate them and thus ensure a fair and totally objective assessment. From this information, and based on qualitative and quantitative criteria agreed with each client, we are able to identify a long-list of potentially suitable fund managers.

4. Beauty parade
bfinance then supports the client through the due-diligence process necessary to identify a suitable fund manager deemed capable of responding to the requirements of the specific mandate.

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Our approach is a highly time and resource-efficient solution to fund manager selection. Our clients are involved only at the appropriate key stages of the selection process. We report to our clients on our findings at every stage of the process, generating an audit trail and a clear rationale for the decisions made. We provide the consultancy, the information and the analysis; our clients make the final selection decision.