J.P. Morgan Asset Management has selected Kurtosys as its strategic technology partner for client reporting, following more than 15 months of evaluation and onboarding. Announced on 27 October, the partnership will support the consolidation of reporting platforms and workflows across the firm’s global business. The programme brings together Kurtosys’s reporting platform and J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s existing data systems. Reporting teams will have greater autonomy in creating and maintaining client-specific reports, supported by shared data, approval workflows and audit trails.
In discussion with RegTech Insight, Kurtosys CEO Lee Godfrey described how institutional investors are demanding increasingly complex bespoke reporting capabilities leaving asset managers with a dilemma; either turn down mandates or meet the requirements with manual processes that don’t scale and introduce operational risk. Meeting these challenges has shaped the development of the Kurtosys platform. “What our technology allows them to do is build in that customisation at scale,” he says.Data Accountability
Godfrey describes data lineage as central to that customisation. “Complete data lineage from the report that goes to the investor back to the data source,” he says, describing the approach underpinning the J.P. Morgan engagement. Tracing reported data to its source extends beyond client reporting. The same fund data can appear in factsheets, websites and external data services, creating further points where managers need to demonstrate consistency.
When market commentators criticize information reported by Bloomberg and Morningstar, Godfrey asks, “Well, whose fault is that?” Asset managers need to check the accuracy of information reported to external services and ensure that it’s being correctly reflected.
Keeping fund information consistent requires managers to carry changes through to the documents and data services investors use. Godfrey describes how registering a fund in a new market can trigger regulatory notification, factsheet production and updates to external providers. Calendar deadlines also initiate production, such as monthly factsheets. Kurtosys uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate data ingestion and distribution, with human involvement in decisions within that process. “Any decision making in the process has a human in the loop,” he says.Regulatory Expansion
Kurtosys’s move into regulatory reporting followed several years spent developing its core client reporting platform. Godfrey, who previously led fund data and regulatory reporting provider KNEIP, resisted expanding into the regulatory space until the core business was ready.
Client requests under the UK’s Consumer Composite Investments (CCI) regime prompted that expansion. Investors needed disclosures suited to different products, and clients saw an opportunity to adapt Kurtosys’s existing document production technology. The company added the regulatory reporting and fund data management product lines this year.
To build those products, Kurtosys recruited regulatory specialists to work alongside its engineers and product teams. Godfrey wants that combination of expertise and technology to help clients manage changes to disclosure requirements across markets. He describes the pain around regulatory reporting as change. His aim is to incorporate those changes into the platform, reducing the need for clients to repeat procurement and implementation work as requirements evolve. The expansion builds on the reporting capabilities supporting engagements such as J.P. Morgan’s.
Automation and Oversight
Kurtosis’s plans for AI reflect the pressures facing asset managers: reducing costs, meeting investor demands and maintaining relationships through difficult markets. Over the next 12 months, the company intends to incorporate AI for accelerated report creation and customisation, alongside further development of its quality controls.
That work starts with understanding where data originates and how it reaches an investor or regulator. Consolidating information in a data lake is only one part of that process says Godfrey, “But the data is never created in a lake. It’s based somewhere else. So, getting data lineage into your data architecture is important.”
The global scope of the J.P. Morgan contract adds impetus to expansion into new jurisdictions with Europe on the immediate horizon and further expansion into North America to follow. For Kurtosys, the next phase brings faster production, broader reporting coverage and data quality into the same development programme. Godfrey’s ambition is to help asset managers meet complex investor requirements, leveraging their existing data and operational resources more effectively.
Subscribe to our newsletter
