Charles River Investment Management Solution

Charles River IMS automates front and middle office investment management functions for buy-side
firms in the institutional asset and fund management, private wealth, alternative investments, insurance,
banking and pension markets. Charles River helps clients make better investment decisions, streamline
operations and reduce risk.

For 20+ Years Today Tomorrow

Charles River has distilled the best practices Investment firms in more In an environment of
from a diverse, global client base and than 40 countries use ever-changing markets,
incorporated them into the Charles River Charles River IMS to competitive and regulatory
Investment Management Solution (Charles manage more than US$25 pressures, Charles River
River IMS). With a long term view and singular Trillion in assets in the continues to invest heavily
focus on the front and middle office, Charles institutional investment, in R&D to help clients:
River has helped large and small firms achieve: wealth management and
• Grow and retain assets
hedge fund industries.
• Better informed investment decisions through continuous
Clients rely on Charles
innovation
• An enterprise-wide view of investments River to: 
and exposures • Diversify and expand
• Improve trade execution products and geographic
• Accurate, timely and consistent data across
• Monitor & reduce risk coverage
the investment process
• Simplify & streamline • Keep up with regulatory
• Consolidation of disparate point solutions on
operations requirements
a single platform
End-to-End Investment Lifecycle Support
Charles River IMS supports the entire investment lifecycle on one platform, Key Advantages
from portfolio management and risk analytics to trading and post-trade •M
 ake better investment
settlement, with the broadest available asset class coverage and integrated decisions

compliance throughout. • Improve trade execution

• Streamline middle office
An Investment Book of Record (IBOR) further improves efficiency and accuracy operations
by removing dependence on back-office data feeds. Charles River’s Enterprise •R
 educe cost, risk & complexity
Data Management (EDM) capabilities help firms improve the consistency and • I ncrease end user
completeness of their reference, analytics, pricing, and benchmark data. productivity & satisfaction
•L
 aunch new products faster
Software as a Service (SaaS) Deployment
Charles River IMS is delivered as a hosted service, with integrated data
and end user support, enabling clients to access the latest functionality faster, improve data quality, and streamline
operations. This simplified Software as a Service (SaaS) operating model helps clients respond more quickly to business,
investor and regulatory demands. This increases end user satisfaction, ensures more predictable costs, and helps
improve reliability.

The SaaS-based offering includes seamless upgrades and 24/7, follow-the-sun support provided by Charles River’s
in-house support staff. Most importantly, Charles River provides the proper foundation for the investment process by
providing, validating and managing all necessary data.

One Platform for Multiple Business Lines

Charles River IMS combines best of breed components in a platform that meets the diverse and demanding
requirements of buy-side firms, including:

• Institutional asset and fund managers • Private banks and wealth managers

• Alternative investment managers and hedge funds • Pensions and insurers

Best practice workflows help improve staff productivity, and a highly scalable and configurable open architecture
enables clients to consolidate multiple business lines on a single platform. Charles River IMS supports the full
spectrum of financial product offerings, from basic asset class-specific products to solution oriented and complex
multi-asset products.

Anytime, Anywhere Access

Charles River provides flexible end user deployment options and
easily scales to support thousands of users. In addition to desktop
deployment, a configurable browser-based dashboard allows financial
advisors to quickly personalize information for managing complex
accounts and high-touch client relationships. Advisors and client-facing
users can make in-person meetings more interactive by using tablets
as graphical reporting and presentation tools. Charles River’s mobile
Charles River offers seamless browser-based and mobile
app provides remote access and gives users a “big picture” view into device access to portfolios, exposures and trades, and
Charles River IMS when away from the office. desktop deployment for enterprise workflows.
Market Segments
Key Advantages
Institutional Asset & Fund Management •G
 row & retain assets
• Diversify products
By managing separate funds and investment products on a single enterprise
• Expand geographies
solution, firms are able to automate their investment process, streamline
•K
 eep up with regulatory
workflows and reduce the points of integration that contribute to requirements
inefficiencies and errors: •S
 implify systems & operations
Improve decision making with centralized portfolio construction, •R
 educe risk & cost
management and analysis
Increase trader productivity with a single order and execution management
system
Access risk management, scenario analysis, and attribution directly from the portfolio management workspace
Automate compliance checking throughout the investment lifecycle

Wealth Management
Charles River provides institutional capabilities that support discretionary and non-discretionary private wealth product
lines, enhance client interactions, and efficiently manage large volumes of accounts and trades:
Speed introduction of new products with built-in Ensure tax-efficient portfolios and tax optimization
support for all asset classes, including unit trusts, ETFs, across households
futures, options and fixed income Maintain a holistic view of family assets, including
Support region-specific frameworks and products, household and multi-generation views
such as SMA, UMA, UMH, Rep as Manager, and Mutual Improve throughput by rebalancing high volumes of
Fund Wraps separately managed, unified and household accounts
Effectively implement investment strategies using Enrich client presentations with graphical reports on
characteristic-based allocation models and custom mobile devices
benchmark portfolios

Alternative Investment Management & Hedge Funds

Charles River’s enterprise solution meets the requirements of both large and small organizations, enabling alternative
investment managers to:
Create and manage multiple strategies and Alleviate staffing and infrastructure pressures with a
sub-strategies with institutional capabilities across all turnkey solution that simplifies day-to-day operations
asset classes, including derivatives & FX and scales with business needs
Minimize ramp-up time with out-of-the-box templates Streamline regulatory obligations such as global
for quick set-up and flexible configuration of user shareholder disclosure (GSD) reporting with automated
interfaces and workflows compliance checking and built-in libraries
Support active management styles with portfolio
analytics and execution capabilities, providing a global
view of investment performance and risk, and the ability
to monitor P&L in real time
A Simplified Operating Model
SaaS-based deployment provides clients with significantly faster access to new capabilities and ensures the
necessary data for Charles River IMS. Clients can leverage the economy of scale in Charles River’s global
support teams and the expertise that comes from supporting a diverse client base. Having a single point of
contact for software, hardware, data and connectivity saves time and improves accountability.

Data Services & Support

Investment management systems consume enormous quantities of data, and ensuring consistent data quality is one of
the biggest challenges for buy-side firms. Managing ever-growing data volumes across instrument types is an industry-
wide problem that is compounded by frequent changes and quality issues with data providers. Charles River alleviates data
problems by providing an all-inclusive data solution incorporating:
The Charles River Data Service using best of breed Additional providers based on asset class with
providers, that maps and enriches reference and real- standardized integration and support (e.g., FinCAD
time data, and supports new security setup analytics) and mortgage pre-payment models
Certified interfaces that work out-of-the-box and are Enterprise Data Management (EDM) facilities to
continuously maintained and managed by Charles River manage, monitor and promote gold copy data within
to Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and IDC. Charles River IMS and to other systems
An Investment Book of Record (IBOR) to ensure an A data management service to ensure a high quality
accurate view of positions and cash throughout the security master
trading day
Charles River helps reduce data costs, technical issues and administrative headaches by managing the entire data process for
clients, aggregating all necessary data and incorporating it directly into the Charles River IMS for over a thousand data fields.

SaaS-based Delivery
Charles River keeps software current by managing regular upgrades and Key Advantages
ensuring optimal application performance and reliability. Application specialists • Up-to-date software and
manage Charles River IMS according to best practices, and provide application technology
and integration expertise that is difficult for firms to build and maintain in-house. •B
 etter data quality & accuracy
• Improve day-to-day operations
Compliance Advisory Services • Minimize staff requirements &
training
Charles River’s compliance services team provides a level of knowledge and
• Lower technology costs
depth of skills difficult to maintain with in-house staff alone. Compliance
• I SO 27001 security certified
Advisory Services act as an extension of the client’s compliance organization to globally
ensure that their compliance rules and workflows are efficient, follow accepted
best practices and align with client mandates and regulatory requirements.

FIX Connectivity
Charles River’s broker-neutral financial network supports global electronic trading via FIX with access to over 600
global liquidity venues. Full integration facilitates direct access between buy-side clients, sell-side brokers and trading
venues to simplify operations and improve trading reliability. Charles River provides complete FIX administration,
connectivity management and support. Continuous testing, certification and monitoring of sell-side end points
increases service levels and end user satisfaction.
Portfolio Management
Key Capabilities
Charles River IMS provides extensive portfolio management and • Portfolio construction
analytics for fixed income, equity, FX and derivatives on one •A
 sset allocation & rebalancing
platform with integrated data. Data visualization and aggregation • Ex-ante risk
capabilities and best practice workflows provide portfolio • Value-at-Risk (VaR)
managers with a readily familiar tool that is easy to use and frees • Scenario analysis
them from dependency on spreadsheets. Integrated performance •E
 x-post risk
measurement and risk management provide real time visibility into •P
 erformance measurement &
attribution
performance and risk exposure. Scenario analysis and advanced
analytical capabilities help portfolio managers understand
investment risks.

With Charles River’s centralized workspace, portfolio managers can easily view their accounts, drill down to holdings, and display multiple concurrent views
of the same accounts.

Fixed Income
Charles River IMS provides portfolio analysis tools and analytics for standard and emerging corporate bond markets,
a comprehensive set of government bond types from more than 50 countries, plus fixed income derivatives, including
interest rate and credit default swaps, forwards, futures and options. Fixed income views can group portfolios by
multiple classifications, including sectors, ratings, issuers and duration bands, with flexible drill-down, enabling
portfolio managers to:

Evaluate portfolio strategies by conducting benchmark comparisons and dispersion analysis

Manage risk leveraging Charles River’s powerful built-in analytics tools and third-party sources for exposure
management, sensitivities, risk analytics, stress testing, ex-post risk, Value-at-Risk (VaR) and ex-ante risk

Understand portfolio-level impact before generating orders by proposing on either a “what if” or “generic” basis
Equity
Charles River’s portfolio analysis tools support equities and equity Advanced Capabilities
derivatives, including futures, options, and total return swaps. Portfolio • Strategy/model management
managers can implement active and passive investment strategies using • Currency overlay management
asset allocation and security selection tools. Workflows can be optimized & hedging
for one or many portfolios using customizable views to: • Instrument exposure
look-through
Efficiently manage holdings by targeting on country, region, currency,
industry/sector, and market capitalization roll-ups • Investment Book of Record for
accurate holdings information
Fulfill organizational and fund mandates by rebalancing portfolios
or utilizing cash invest/divest capabilities to align positions with their
respective model or index
Determine risk impact of potential orders by conducting hypothetical “what-if” analysis
Optimize operations by automatically factoring client-specific restrictions into all order generation activities

Foreign Exchange
Full multi-currency support allows portfolio managers to view any portfolio in any currency, using real-time FX rates,
enabling them to:
Effectively manage and hedge currency risk with currency overlay
Quickly assess FX/hedging needs with currency-based settlement day forecasting and flexible viewing options (by
asset currency, currency clusters, across portfolios, etc.)
Fine-tune currency exposure by consolidating/rolling forward positions

Flexible tools enable portfolio

managers to classify their holdings
and implement investment
decisions for one or many portfolios,
align positions with benchmarks or
models, and monitor the status of
orders across the trading desk.

Comprehensive multi-currency and

FX support help portfolio managers
manage currency exposure across
global portfolios.
Risk Management & Scenario Analysis
Integrated risk management and scenario analysis functions enable firms to meet client and regulatory
demands for greater transparency and stricter guidelines throughout the investment process. Charles
River IMS provides portfolio managers, risk managers and compliance officers with curve-based analytic
measures, ex-post and ex-ante risk metrics, accessible directly from portfolio management workflows
and reports.

With Charles River IMS, risk measurement and modeling become

an integral part of daily portfolio management activities, using
the same data and metrics as quants and risk analysts.

Flexible scenario definitions help investment managers analyze

the full spectrum of conditions and stress events as defined by
regulators or anticipated by portfolio managers.

Make more informed decisions by viewing key rate Increase visibility of ex-post and ex-ante risk metrics
durations and sensitivities to other analytical factors for including risk contribution and attribution for tracking
the entire portfolio and benchmark, calculated natively error, volatility, variance, information ratio, beta;
Stress-test portfolios by specifying interest rate and summary risk measures include Jensen’s alpha, Sharpe
credit scenarios; view effects on the portfolio and ratio, Treynor ratio, Sortino ratio, downside risk and
benchmark for portfolio fair value, yield, duration and others; calculate Value-at-Risk (VaR) using historical
other analytics simulation, as well as ex-ante volatility and tracking
error (TE) using Charles River’s statistical factor model
Centralize risk management via seamless integration
or a third party factor model
with Charles River’s compliance functions automates risk
monitoring across the enterprise
Performance Measurement & Attribution
Charles River IMS enriches the portfolio management process with up-to-date performance
measurement and attribution analysis (PMA) and facilitates GIPS compliance, without the need to
integrate a standalone PMA system. Users can directly access all return, contribution, attribution and
risk data for each portfolio, for a variety of timeframes and user-defined classification levels. Charles
River reference and pricing data reduces operational complexity and helps ensure a consistent view of
performance and attribution across the firm. Users can also perform backward-looking performance
analyses for any historical time period or account using multiple search criteria.

Eliminate standalone systems with fixed income and Reflect investment objectives and/or strategies using
equity performance and attribution on a consolidated custom blended benchmarks
platform Automatically reconcile performance contribution,
Provide context for decision making by analyzing attribution and ex-post risk data by eliminating multiple
results directly within the portfolio management data feeds from disparate systems
workspace or via reports Reduce “noise” and inaccuracies by easily restating
Streamline workflows with “look-through” calculation performance data (price changes, corporate actions,
down to the individual security level and dynamic etc.)
recalculation of results when methodologies and Automate GIPS support with rules to maintain GIPS
classifications are changed on the fly composite memberships; standard reports include firm
and composite disclosures

Performance reports provide detailed breakdowns

of performance figures and summarize results
in bar or trend charts that can be viewed from
Charles River IMS or a web browser.

Configurable workbench views consolidate

performance contribution, attribution and ex-post
risk results for portfolio managers.
Trading & Execution
Key Capabilities
With Charles River’s combined order and execution management system •O
 rder & execution
(OEMS), traders can work more productively by creating, placing and management

executing orders in one trading blotter. Traders can manage trade execution •D
 ata charting &
visualization
strategies, streamline complex workflows into “one-click” execution, act on
• Trading analytics &
an entire program as if acting on a single order, and monitor market data and transaction cost analysis
active orders. Full integration with portfolio management functions enables (TCA)

better communication between traders and managers. Interfaces with sell- • Broker & commission
management
side and execution venues support cross-asset class coverage.
Charles River’s trading blotter offers numerous advantages over
discrete order and execution systems. Traders can work more efficiently by eliminating multiple
interfaces, fragmented workflows and order staging problems inherent in utilizing separate order and
execution platforms. Traders no longer have to switch between systems or re-key critical information,
which saves time and reduces errors. Benefits beyond the trading desk include improved compliance and
auditing, and greater collaboration between traders and portfolio managers.

Fixed Income
Charles River IMS improves trader decision making with quick and efficient workflows and built-in quote management.
Traders can find liquidity and negotiate with counterparties, monitor the market, and execute both cash and derivative
trades, with:
Comprehensive asset class support including Integration with leading fixed income ECNs, allowing
government, investment grade, high yield, municipal, traders to stage orders and receive completed trade
structured, inflation-linked, emerging market debt, TBA, details after execution
and listed and OTC derivatives Advanced trading capabilities including generic order
Accurate and up-to-date security information, handling, multiple-quote support, streamlined booking
including benchmarks and curves, with tight integration of complex swaps, trading on price, yield, spread, swap
to fixed income market data providers rate and deal spread

Charles River’s configurable

trading blotter automates
manual processes with
integrated quoting and built-in
access to trading platforms.
Equity
Equity traders require quick access to all relevant data and liquidity. Charles River’s intuitive trading blotter
encompasses all the key workflows for equity cash and equity derivative orders, including:
Easy access to fundamental trading analytics at all stages of the trade lifecycle, with integrated transaction cost
analysis (TCA) from order generation through execution
Support for multiple trading methods and strategies including program trading, single name trading, algorithmic
trading, DMA trading and spread trading
Freedom to focus attention on more complex, less liquid orders by utilizing
automated smart order routing for low touch orders
Key Capabilities
Integrated critical market data and charting, including real-time level I and
• Real-time market
level II exchange data, price history, news, watchlists, time and sales, and venue analysis data
Built-in access to liquidity with a broker-neutral FIX network, providing connectivity • Automated smart
to more than 600 trading destinations and ability to quickly add new destinations order routing
• Program/list trading
• Algo trading
• Multi-leg spread
trading
• DMA trading
• Venue analysis
•P
 re- & post-trade TCA

Charles River brings together the tools

and data traders need to effectively
implement trading strategies.

Charles River helps traders achieve

best execution by gathering
multiple quotes and automatically
Foreign Exchange identifying the best rate.

Charles River’s automated FX capabilities help investment managers

hedge out currency exposure and risk, and reduce the cost of
settlement for cross-border trading. Charles River enables firms to
manage their own FX trades with a highly efficient workflow that
easily links FX trades back to the original equity, fixed income or
derivative trade, and ultimately reduces costs with:

Fully automated settlement and hedging trades based on pre-

defined settlement and hedging rules

Complete transparency into portfolio cash through full integration Streamlined access to the best rate
to cash flow forecast through streaming quotes (RFQ/RFS)

Direct access to multiple liquidity destinations including bank Best execution analysis and reporting,
direct, ECNs and bank algorithms including the ability to store historical quotes
Compliance
Charles River helps clients meet increasing regulatory obligations with centralized compliance monitoring
and management capabilities, and advisory services that utilize a comprehensive library of built-in rules for
worldwide regulatory requirements and mandates, including US SEC 1940 Act and Rule 2a-7, UCITS and
ESMA, MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, KAGB, global shareholder disclosure (GSD) regulations and others. Charles
River IMS automates the compliance workflow and provides advanced compliance rule building, testing
and maintenance, customizable reporting and a complete audit history, including the ability to:

Reduce intra-day risk by validating compliance at any stage of the trade

lifecycle: pre-trade, in-trade, post-execution, end-of-day/post-trade
Key Capabilities
Streamline portfolio management workflows by incorporating
• Compliance monitoring over
compliance rules into “what-if” analysis investment lifecycle
Optimize compliance monitoring by prioritizing and filtering alerts • Comprehensive rule libraries

Easily trace violations and perform historical trend analysis through “As • Rule building & testing
of” compliance reporting •M
 odel compliance

Supply regulators and auditors with end-to-end audit trails and extensive • Advisory & Global Shareholder
Disclosure Services
trade compliance reporting
• “ As of” compliance
Improve responsiveness to alerts and warnings via browser or mobile
• Derivative exposure calculations
device
• Calculation builder
Stay current with best practices, client mandates and regulatory • Integrated VaR monitoring
requirements by leveraging Charles River’s Compliance Rule Advisory
• “ Four Eyes” test authorization
Service and Global Shareholder Disclosure Service

Charles River
automates
compliance
validation and
monitors risk
across the trade
life cycle.

Rich repository of compliance

rules and advanced rule-building
tools provide diverse instrument
and regulatory support.

Comprehensive reporting
tools, including historical trend
analysis and “As of” reporting,
provide documentation needed
for regulatory or audit inquiries.
Middle Office
Post-Trade Matching, Confirmation & Settlement
Key Capabilities
Charles River automates the post-trade process and provides centralized • Collateral Management
confirmation, trade matching and settlement instruction workflows. For •B
 lock & allocation
matching
each transaction, dealers and traders, portfolio managers, compliance,
• Accounting import/
and operations personnel have the same real-time view of all post-trade exports
processing activity and data. The resulting low-touch settlement process • OTC clearing
minimizes manual steps and enables investment managers to: • Reconciliation
• Automated straight
Expedite settlement by routing individual trades and allocations in real-time to through processing
facilitate same-day matching and confirmation
• Exception management
Reduce failed trades and settlement issues with consistent views of post-trade • SWIFT communication
activity and data with custodians

Manage “by exception” with personalized views and alerts that save time and speed
up corrective intervention
Charles River IMS automatically routes transaction details and ensures central or local matching with flexible exception
management and configurable, rule-based local tolerance matching. Built-in interfaces include:
• Omgeo OASYS, CTM & TradeSuite • MarkitSERV swap clearing • FIX 4.2 or 4.4 allocation workflow
• Local match/affirm with any destination • ISO 15022/SWIFT for custodian notification

Investment Book of Record (IBOR)

Key Capabilities
Charles River’s Investment Book of Record provides traders and portfolio • Audit trail of transactions
and positions
managers with an accurate and real-time view of positions and cash.
• Exception based position
IBOR provides an investment-centric view of positions that reduces trade reconciliation
errors and time spent manually reconciling position data. • Supports mandatory
& voluntary corporate
Charles River increases confidence in investment decisions by providing consistent position actions
data and actionable analytics throughout the investment process. IBOR makes position •F
 ull security lifecycle
data available to downstream systems including reporting, performance attribution and support
risk management, enabling them to access the same view of positions in real time.
Incorporating IBOR in Charles River IMS enables organizations to decouple the front and back office, and helps firms that
do not have an accounting system and rely solely on feeds from custodians and prime brokers. It also benefits wealth
managers who need to consolidate positions from multiple accounting systems, or control tax lot tagging for newer multi-
sleeve or multi-strategy products. Charles River’s IBOR solution allows users to:
Improve accuracy and reduce end-of-day processing Help portfolio managers remain fully invested by
time by eliminating dependency on back office data providing accurate intraday cash balance information
Reduce the possibility of trading errors and compliance Increase transparency and improve record keeping by
violations by ensuring that managers are trading on incorporating external transactions that affect positions
complete information
Wealth Management Key Advantages
Charles River offers financial advisors, private banks and wealth • Manage all discretionary and
non-discretionary products on
managers a comprehensive and fully integrated solution that one platform
eliminates the need for multiple systems. Solution capabilities • Automate and streamline
include mobile and browser based access, highly performant communication with sponsors

central overlay, multi-custodial position management, detailed •S

 peed time to market for
innovative product offerings
performance analysis, and a communication hub.
• Streamlined deployment
of advisor-driven strategies

Central Overlay
with centralized portfolio
management
Exception-based workflows for identifying accounts requiring attention
Highly performant managed account overlay functionality
Meets the demanding requirements of high-volume sponsor firms with millions of accounts

Central overlay capabilities facilitate highly scalable management

of SMA/UMA products and tax-based trading.

Anywhere / Anytime Access

Browser-based access to portfolio management tools integrated with an order management system for financial
advisors, executives and compliance officers
Tablet and phone access to key account information improves engagement with high-touch client relationships
Allows advisors to quickly personalize information for managing complex accounts and client relationships
Increased mobility makes advisors more productive and minimizes lost opportunities for engagement with prospects
Wealth Hub
Enables wealth managers to automate and streamline communication with sponsors
Simple, dashboard based communications

Secure, single-click account and model updates to all applicable sponsors

Streamlines operations by eliminating the need to learn and interact with multiple sponsor platforms

Replaces email exchanges and provides more reliable, auditable transmission of data

Allows managers to offer services to a larger number of sponsors

Helps eliminate low value, error prone manual workflows

Supports model management, account requests, order workflows and receiving positions and tax lot data from
sponsors

Multi-Custodial Position Management and Reconciliation

Provides real-time position management for large volumes of accounts and positions

Critical for managers running sub-advised mandates

Provides an investment-centric view of positions

Review and manage positions and tax lots from

the position management dashboard.
 Charles River enables sound and efficient investing across all asset classes. Investment firms in more than 40
countries use Charles River IMS to manage more than US$25 Trillion in assets in the institutional investment,
wealth management and hedge fund industries. Our Software as a Service-based solution automates and
simplifies investment management on a single platform – from portfolio decision support and risk management
through trading and post-trade settlement, with integrated risk and compliance throughout. Headquartered in
Burlington, Massachusetts, we support clients globally with more than 750 employees in 11 regional offices.

WWW.CRD.COM

LOCATIONS Boston Indianapolis Singapore Institutional II Insurers II Pensions

Hedge Funds II Private Banking/Wealth
Beijing London Tokyo
Front & Middle Office Solution
Dublin Melbourne Toronto Portfolio Management & Risk Analytics
Order & Execution Management
Hong Kong New York
Compliance II Investment Book of Record
SaaS Deployment II Integrated Data