Bernie & GIPS

I received an interesting question from a Linkedin mate today regarding the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS(R)) and the impact that our friend Bernie Madoff may have had:

I was just curious about this and I figured you would be a good person to ask,

With all the scams (Madoff) and market meltdowns, has the amount of firms looking to become GIPS verified increased? Have they been feeling the pressure to get GIPS verified? I would think they would but it still seems there are a lot of firms out there that are not.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

We have definitely seen increased interest in compliance. Our verification business grew by more than 400% last year and this was partly due to firms becoming compliant for the first time. One might also attribute some of the growth to the market downturn, where firms are making the investment to comply in order to attract new business. And, we've seen increased interest in compliance (and verification) from the hedge fund community.

Yes, Bernie has been very good for GIPS!