Welcome to Distributor Due Diligence

We enable fund managers and intermediaries to conduct due diligence on the global distributors and institutional clients of their funds. Please look at the sections below to find out how we can help you.

OUR PROPOSITION

BACKGROUND – THE PROBLEM

Ongoing distributor due diligence, a long-established requirement in Luxembourg, is now a regulatory expectation across Europe. However, this has been a painful process for fund managers and their clients.

Thousands of due diligence questionnaires are being requested and chased by fund managers at any one time. Formats and questions are (slightly) different, but distributors lack a dedicated team for this, so their responses are often incomplete and slow (see picture).

Fund managers spend too much time chasing responses and seeking clarifications. Reviewing each questionnaire response is entirely manual. Follow-up is by e-mail, making it hard to create a clear audit trail stored in one place. Analysis from a European fund manager shows it takes 3 person-days per distributor for the full due diligence process. Multiply that with the number of distributors you have, and you get an idea how much this costs your firm.

Distributor Due Diligence Picture 1
Fund managers need to waste less time chasing and processing questionnaire responses, so they can focus instead on their regulatory obligation: reviewing and rating the content of each distributor response.

WHAT FUND MANAGERS NEED

We need a solution that works for onboarding and ongoing due diligence

We need a solution that works for all types of clients (institutional investors as well as distributors) across the globe

We need a solution that distributors will be prepared to adopt so that we get timely responses

We want to the option of a Big Four audit firm pre-reviewing questionnaire responses from time to time

We need a solution that can be deployed within 1 month

We need auditable, extractable records

We need a solution that saves time, allowing us to use our resources more effectively

OUR PROPOSITION

Set up b y industry practitioners, 3D is the only available distributor oversight solution that is solely focused on r educing your admin burden, while ensuring you can demonstrate full compliance. Our support team bends over backwards to get the answers you need, saving you up to 2.5 person-days per distributor in admin time. Here’s how:

Our Platform:

  • Client-friendly questionnaire (see picture):
  • Distributors complete it once – for all their fund managers – because we include all regulatory expectations
  • Dynamic so that each type of client you have (distributors, intermediaries and corporate investors) only ever answer the questions relevant to their business
  • Automatically collecting all the documentation you need for onboarding
  • Unique MiFID II target market feedback solution
  • Easy review process – distributors must answer all questions. ‘Bad’ answers require explanation and are risk-flagged. You can even ask distributors to update their response through our unique clarifications process.
  • Flexible to mirror your internal review process and team structure
Distributor Due Diligence Picture 2

Our Support Team:

  • We make up to 1,000 calls a month supporting/chasing distributors to complete their questionnaire
  • We speak your distributor’s language – our multi-lingual team eliminates the risk of any misunderstandings
  • We help distributors – we can populate our questionnaire, if they already have a completed standard DDQ

Our New Optional Review Service:

  • Working with ‘Big Four’ audit firm – who will review the questionnaire responses for participating firms,
    to speed up our clients’ assessment of each distributor
  • Safe contractual separation – we appoint the audit firm, not you (see picture 3)
  • Attractively priced – you benefit from economies of scale, lowering costs
Distributor Due Diligence Picture 3

Why Us?

  • We are well established – with ~1,000 distributors in ~75 countries already covered
  • Our clients collectively manage more than £1 trillion of assets under management
  • It is all we do – our vision is to become the one-stop shop for third-party oversight and governance in the funds world by addressing the real underlying industry challenges
  • We have been in your shoes – we are industry practitioners who once did your job

Already have access to the Platform?

If you already have access to the Platform, you can login now by clicking the link below.

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ABOUT US

OUR VISION: to become the one-stop shop for third-party oversight and governance in the funds world by addressing the real underlying industry challenges.

Fabian Richter

  • 15 years asset management experience (8 years in-house)
  • Led multi-£m projects on CRM, system integration, investment platform reviews
  • Recently led Product and Fund Distribution teams at Ruffer
  • Chaired the Ruffer Funds Committee (ExCo sub-committee controlling Ruffer’s fund governance)

Steve Bennett

  • Over 30 years in-house asset management experience
  • Designed original MiFID II target market framework adopted by EFAMA
  • Participating in EU-wide FinDaTex working group
  • Led UK Investment Association working group on MiFID II target market feedback (summer 2019)

INTRODUCTORY VIDEO

CONTACTS

Any further questions?
If there was anything we couldn’t answer today, please let us know and we will come back to you.

Arrange a meeting?
If you are interested in our solution, we would love to hear from you to arrange a follow-up meeting.

Fabian Richter
Co-Founder
fabian@distributordd.com
+44-7768-773938

Steve Bennett
Co-Founder
steve@distributordd.com
+44-7714-757518

Distributor Due Diligence Ltd
285 Kennington Road, London SE11 6BY

Registered in England & Wales, company number 11243284


3D is proud to be certified as meeting the requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 27001

ISO 9001, ISO 27001

Our corporate polices are available to external parties on request.