Open architecture, independently verified: the Connect data layer for trustees

Raw counterparty data is not review-ready data. Before any portfolio reaches an Investment Analyst, the data Connect receives runs through a verification pipeline that does five things. It reconciles holdings to valuations to confirm the parts add up to the whole. It checks for missing transactions and identifies duplicates. It maps every security to a standardised classification so the same instrument is recognised consistently across counterparties. It maps every transaction to a universal double-entry bookkeeping standard so the same data can populate any accounting ledger (see Investment bookkeeping). And it flags anomalies that need human attention before the review proceeds. This work is done independently of the counterparty, on data the counterparty has supplied. That independence is the point. The manager is the party being assessed; the manager’s own data, taken at face value, is not the right starting point for assessing them.

The combined effect of the open-architecture network and the verification pipeline is a single, trustworthy source of investment data for the trustee. Whatever the manager, whatever the custodian, whatever the jurisdiction, Connect delivers the data in a consistent format that the trustee can rely on, the Investment Analyst can review against the IPS, and the Governance Manager can comment on. The trustee does not have to stitch together different formats from different providers, normalise them in spreadsheets, or accept the manager’s framing of the numbers. The data layer does that work upstream. What reaches the trustee is the result: an independent, verified, consistent view of their entire investment estate, as a foundation for the review and for everything that follows from it (see Action Points).