New service from TIM Group helps FoHFs adapt faster to changing markets

Date: Thursday, December 22, 2011
Author: Wendy Chothia, HedgeWeek

TIM Group has launched a new service that enables the fund of hedge funds (FoHFs) industry to react faster to changing market and industry conditions.

Through a series of newly developed Application Program Interfaces (APIs), TIM Funds Connect enables TIM Funds users to "plug and play," "mix and match," and interact seamlessly with virtually any in-house or third party technology based system or data/information service.

"The FoHF industry no longer needs to fear being 'locked in' to anything," says Jonathan Bradshaw, TIM Funds Client Director. "Connect provides FoHFs and their administrators with the ability to access their data when they need it, and in whatever form they find most useful. They also will have unparalleled flexibility, now and in the future, to adapt quickly and continuously to changing industry and market conditions."

TIM Funds, formerly known as The HIP (Hedge fund Information Provider), is an online platform used by FoHFs or through their administrators and custodians, for front, middle and back office management information, and decision making.

Connect is now available to all existing users of TIM Funds, which include standalone and large FoHF complexes, institutional investors who invest directly in hedge funds, and major FoHF third party administrators.

Using Connect to integrate TIM Funds with other information systems enables data to flow automatically between them.

Users can view and analyse all their position information in one place.

Everyone in the organisation so authorised can access a data dictionary to extract the exact elements they need to create customised reports.

Users can maximise their return on investment in TIM Funds by providing fast, resilient and intuitive access to data and results that monitor and drive their portfolios.

Connect enables FoHFs to use TIM Funds to quickly adapt to new demands from regulators, investors and management.

Develop new reports to meet regulations, such as Europe's Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMD).

Create customised portfolios on behalf of every client, rather than fund picking on behalf of a portfolio.

Respond to increasing investor demands for new levels of transparency.

Produce data to better manage overhead, liquidity or compliance.

Today's announcement is part of TIM Funds' strategy of becoming the technology backbone for the next generation of growth in the FoHF industry.

"Once FoHFs are on our web-based platform, portfolio managers can use its powerful tools to analyse performance and changes to the fund, and generate and transmit trade orders. All position information is automatically updated," Bradshaw says. "With TIM Funds, FoHFs can completely get out of the data management business and focus 100% of their time on where they can add the most value -- fund selection, due diligence, maximising performance and expanding assets under management."

Clients are supported through 24/7 global customer service and a team of more than 100 developers, operating out of offices in New York, Boston, London, and Hong Kong.