Finance without boundaries
The front-to-back investment management platform
JHC Figaro—Deployed by more than 60 firms, used by over 5,600 front, middle and back office personnel and hundreds of thousands of private investors every day
By automating manual tasks and mission-critical activities, Figaro optimises the collection, storage, arrangement, integration and application of transactional, management and accounting data.
Figaro becomes the books and records of the business and provides the foundation on which execution only, advisory, discretionary and institutional brokers and wealth managers can build for the future.
Teams, departments and offices function as one
Data is complete and trustworthy. Regulatory and compliance requirements are met as a matter of course; services and products can be shaped around known and specific customer needs.
As AUM grow, so does Figaro—without constraint. No more hold ups, system ‘fixes’ and complex reconciliations between modules and offices.
Engineered for the long haul, Figaro endures for the life of the enterprise. Long term expansion or consolidation strategies can be followed with confidence, firms can protect and enhance their market share and gain control of their costs.
Figaro is a true multi currency platform, clients can trade and settle in the currency of their choice with the attendant FX transactions as and when required.
The system runs a currency book or can initiate FX trades from each client trade, supported by proper accounting. Clients can specify income in one currency to be automatically exchanged and invested in a different currency. FIGARO also supports multi-currency bank accounts and reconciliations.Key Features
- Client currency preferences covering Markets, Portfolios and Settlement
- Automatic settlement of deals cross currencies i.e. deals settled in market and client preferred currencies with automatic generation of internal cross currency deals. Note commissions/fees etc. can be in yet different currencies
- Ability to set ‘House FX Rates’ for internal auto-generated FX deals, also for all reports except compliance. Add % or point margin to real time FX feeds
- Monitoring of ‘House Rates’ against suitable FX rate feed
- Monitoring of company ‘Principal Currency Risk accounts’ against limits with auto deal generation when limits breached
- P&L calculations and reporting
- Book costs stored in three currencies Client Portfolio, Settlement and Corporate base currency to allow full cross currency valuation and analysis
- Dealing extended to include market indices and FX rate alerts
- Full stock searches
- Limit dealing both UK and foreign with order aggregation when appropriate
- Credit checking across currencies with attributes/ parameters configurable per user
- Market hours checking and warning
- Configurable stock lists per market
- Open order reconciliation
- Contract processing includes principal dealing and bulk trading for international deals
Volume is not a problem, Figaro can handle up to 1,500 users, 1.5m portfolios, and more than 90,000 transactions per day.
Transactions in all asset classes and in multiple currencies are processed effortlessly and without delay.
New regulatory requirements are integrated as they emerge. Requests for information can be responded to quickly and confidently. Risk and finance functions are perfectly aligned. Costs reduce, accuracy improves and the business is more efficient. Managers can make strategic business decisions founded on complete and up to date information.
New regulatory requirements are integrated as they emerge. Requests for information can be responded to quickly and confidently. Risk and finance functions are perfectly aligned. Costs reduce, accuracy improves and the business is more efficient. Managers can make strategic business decisions founded on complete and up to date information.
Figaro supports and integrates all wealth management processes. Illustrative returns can be produced using almost any type of investment.
In addition to generating the usual third party plan or fund illustrations, the platform incorporates advanced asset analysis and risk management tools. Mangers can produce model portfolios based on a range of investment objectives, using any combination of assets. Having comprehensive suitability assessment data immediately to hand enables managers to produce suitability assessment reports without undue delay.Figaro supports and integrates all wealth management processes.
Illustrative returns can be produced using almost any type of investment. In addition to generating the usual third party plan or fund illustrations, the platform incorporates advanced asset analysis and risk management tools.
Mangers can produce model portfolios based on a range of investment objectives, using any combination of assets. Having comprehensive suitability assessment data immediately to hand enables managers to produce suitability assessment reports without undue delay.
Tracking performance
Portfolio performance (client and model) can be analysed within user-specified dates and at any level within Figaro’s Asset Hierarchy, to provide time-weighted Capital Appreciation, Income and Total Return measures.
- Output can be numerical or graphical
- Performance is benchmarked against standard or synthetic indices or appropriate models for the client’s investment objectives and appetite for risk
- Client and model portfolios can be analysed for a range of risk measures such as Beta, Sharpe Ratio and Value at Risk
- By integrating achieved performance with risk exposure, risk-adjusted performance returns can be produced
Figaro enables wealth managers to evaluate allocation strategies to ensure they are meeting their clients’ investment mandates. Using the risk profile, service level and objectives of each portfolio, Figaro analyses each client account to confirm (or not) that each portfolio is being managed within an acceptable range of risk. Analysis can be conducted both across the firm and/or on a manager-by-manager basis to ensure that the level of risk exposure is commensurate with performance.
The two options for measuring performance are:
1. Daily weighted performance: portfolios that are flagged for performance measurement are valued every night. Performance data is readily available for calculations, and as returns are stored daily time-weighted requirement can be satisfied. Returns are split by capital and income, enabling both separate and total returns to be available.
2. Periodic returns: the start and end value of the account over the investment period is modified by the cash and stock movements in the period. It is adjusted by a time-weighted proportion of any stock or cash injection or withdrawals. The returns are also split by capital and income, enabling both separate and total returns to be available.
Figaro shows how far each portfolio is from matching an asset model in terms of proportions of holdings in each stock category. Portfolio holding and model target weights are real time, giving the manager a true picture of how closely the portfolio matches the model.
Figaro’s private cloud-based managed service, gives firms access to the platform’s infrastructure and tools paying only for the functionality they use. As and when the business needs additional facilities and options, they can be activated without delay.
The managed service is hosted off site, so Figaro can be up and running in three months or less, with little if any disruption to day-to-day operations.
- Lower and pre-determined operating costs
- Reduced operational risks
- No complex IT infrastructure
- Fast implementation
One single point of contact, one contractual arrangement
By enabling firms to delegate the management of their operational requirements, the Figaro managed service eases their IT admin burden. Valuable IT assets are released for deployment elsewhere and managers have more time to concentrate on revenue-generating activities.
24/7 support
Once the service is live, the firm has the peace of mind knowing that its operational infrastructure is being monitored and managed constantly by Figaro’s support teams. Whenever an issue arises, in most instances it is resolved seamlessly and quickly.
Reduced operational risks and costs
The Figaro managed service reduces operational risks, staff training costs, spending on IT infrastructure and resourcing and frees up technicians to work on other projects. All the necessary hardware, operational and application support and testing is included in the service. Users can also call on the skills and experience of Figaro’s dedicated team of support engineers. Individually and collectively, the managed service support team has accumulated more knowledge on the platform’s configurations than most in-house IT departments could ever hope to
Figaro continuously monitors to address and incorporate new regulatory changes. Because Figaro incorporates risk management and compliance processes in one, single, standardised IT architecture, users have all they need to consistently satisfy UK reporting regulations.
Firms can demonstrate that their approach to risk management and compliance is not only transparent, but integral to their culture and business activities. And as Figaro provides ongoing UK, Ireland and Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland regulatory support for life, frequent, haphazard and costly updates to stand- alone compliance systems are no longer required.Whenever new or amended regulations are introduced, Figaro clients are consulted at each stage of the product adaption/development process. The developers also collaborate closely with industry bodies such as the Wealth Management Association and the FCA on all matters relating to regulatory and compliance changes.
- Future-proofed against MiFID II and other European and US legislation compliance as it affects UK regulations
- Extremely flexible to extract most/all data stored on the platform
- Configurable account/ledger system
- Comprehensive tax wrapper reporting
- Output in a variety of formats for further processing & analysis
- The platform’s reports enable users to manage financial risk—which Figaro can help calculate—and aged debts.
Approved Transaction Reporting Mechanisms
- Unavista
- Crest
- Bank of Ireland
FCA
- Large Exposure Principal Risk
- Counterparty Risk Report
- CASS
HMRC
- FATCA
- Common Reporting Standard
- S17/S1B
- Full ISA reporting
Figaro is extensible. The platform's API currently interfaces with more than 100 enterprise systems and software vendors around the world.
The Figaro REST API, which is based on the same architectural design used by Amazon, Google and Twitter enables users and third parties to build fully-featured custom calculations, reports and other plugins using a familiar design pattern.
Client on-boarding and maintenance, portfolio valuations, cash statements, transaction history, corporate actions processing and order management (RSP orders and limit orders) are all supported.
Financial institutions understand that their existence depends as much on cyber security as it does on compliance, business development and talent.
Data security is however more likely to be compromised by process failure and human error than by deficiencies in IT. Figaro mitigates the data security risks clients face by ensuring that the software’s security and management processes align with the following International Standards:
- ISO 27001 & ISO 27002 (Information security management)
- ISO22313&ISO22301 (Businesscontinuity management)
- BS 11200 (Crisis management)