The revised GIPS Compliance Form for notifying CFA Institute when firms claim compliance with the GIPS standards is now available. This update reflects the continuation of the requirement initiated in 2015. The form needs to be submitted to CFA Institute by all firms that claim compliance with the GIPS standards by June 30, 2016. Keep in mind that if your firm completed the form last year, that does not fulfill your obligation for 2016. Submitting the form is now an ongoing annual requirement in order to maintain compliance with the GIPS standards.
Following is a summary of the changes that were made to the form.
Additions/Modifications:
- In the “Primary Contact” section, a new question was added stating that CFA Institute “would like to support your firm’s ongoing success” and asking whether they can contact you. It expects a simple “yes” or “no” response, but it is a required element of the form.
- Under the “Firm Information” section, there is a new question asking for the submission of the organization’s GIPS firm definition. A text box is provided so that the specific language used by the firm can be provided. This question is optional.
- In the “Firm Type and Structure” section, there are additional geography related questions. The first question asks where your firm operates. The firm can check a box indicating that the firm is “global” or can specify selected countries and regions from an extensive list of over 200 options. The form then asks if CFA Institute can display the locations where the firm operates on the GIPS website. This is a required “yes” or “no” question.
- Under the “Firm Assets and Investment Vehicles” section, the question related to firm’s GIPS Total Firm Assets is worded in the same manner as last year, but the drop down list with asset ranges to select from has been modified to be less granular at the lower range of assets but more granular on the higher end.
The full form is available at http://www.gipsstandards.org/compliance/Pages/compliance.aspx.
Lastly, the CFA Institute released summary statistics related to the findings from the information submitted last year. You can read about this at: http://cfa.is/1UMQ0XF
