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Aztec Group becomes adopter of AAF
Posted: 4 March 2010
Fund administrator the Aztec Group has announced that it has become an early adopter of the AAF 01/06 accreditation, which is a third party audit of internal controls of a service provider. The accreditation is expected to give the company's Channel Island offices a more controlled internal environment which is believed will meet corporate governance at a high standard. The audit works in accordance with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), and was undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
"As a result of the catastrophic investment failures of recent times, investors have become increasingly focussed on the control and governance arrangements within their asset managers and associated service providers," said Karl Hairon, Director of PwC in Jersey. "Regulators have also begun to look for an increasing degree of assurance over these providers. An AAF 01/06 or SAS70 report provides an independent assessment of the controls in operation within a service provider and goes some way to providing investors and regulators with the assurance they seek. Such reports are a differentiator for providers and in time, as the investment and regulatory landscape continues to evolve, could become an essential requirement for doing business."
The change by the Aztec Group comes as the newly awaited International Standard is about to come into play, which is expected to become the global definitive reporting standard. With the AAF, there is more accountability on the management of an organisation since they are requested for an accurate description of their services and to provide evidence that controls of these services are effectively in place.
"We are committed to providing the very best in fund administration and a comprehensive control framework is of paramount importance when working in such a highly regulated and ever changing environment," said Simon Radford, CFO of the Aztec Group. "This report has fully reviewed our working practices to give our clients and their investors' peace of mind that our processes are robust and that we take the utmost care in managing their affairs."
There has been pressure to have the segregation of fund operations and the regulation of fund product providers after recent high publicity failures within the funds sector. As a result of this, there has been a rising value in the use of a third party administrator.