Foreside Partners with NQR to Provide Intermediary Oversight Services

Foreside will deliver NQR’s Intermediary INSIGHT service to assist firms with their oversight of intermediary relationships

PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foreside Financial Group, LLC (Foreside), a provider of governance, risk management, compliance services, and technology offerings to clients in the global asset and wealth management industry, today announced a strategic partnership with National Quality Review (NQR) to provide their Intermediary INSIGHT service, which standardizes distribution partner audit report reviews in accordance with the Investment Company Institute’s FICCA initiative.

This strategic alliance with NQR will offer clients the ability to upload FICCA reports, SOC reports, intermediary questionnaires, and other intermediary documentation to NQR’s web portal for NQR’s expert review. Standardized numerical ratings are then applied, permitting clients to key in on areas of concern and to follow up as appropriate. Accordingly, NQR’s proprietary solution offers clients the ability to analyze results from intermediary reports quickly and efficiently under the FICCA framework.

“The rise of omnibus recordkeeping has placed greater regulatory emphasis on intermediary oversight,” said Mark Fairbanks, Senior Managing Director, Foreside. “We believe NQR’s Intermediary INSIGHT provides our clients with a consistent method to analyze and compare intermediaries in a cost-effective manner. NQR is the right partner for us because they have helped shape industry standards and test controls for over 30 years.”

With intermediary compliance expectations at a record high, reacting with diligent, cost-effective measures is a challenge for fund companies of all sizes. NQR’S Intermediary INSIGHT service provides an economical and effective audit report review, a platform to report and consolidate data, and access to industry intelligence.

“Foreside’s clients can now access NQR’s INSIGHT service to streamline oversight activities and analyze intermediary data more efficiently,” said Doug Fortin, President and founding partner of NQR. Fortin continued, “As a result, asset managers have more time to focus on the results from expert analysis and identify strategic opportunities rather than focusing on the process of requesting, collecting, organizing, and reviewing materials.”

About NQR

NQR, founded in 1991, provides financial services companies with trusted, unbiased insights into business partner service quality, compliance, and due diligence oversight solutions.

NQR’s industry expertise, third-party benchmarking, and collection of best practices deliver actionable feedback for fund operations, intermediary, and service provider relationships. The NQR Review Team averages over 20 years of industry experience in audit, operations, and compliance/legal, assessing hundreds of audited documents each year.

In turn, our clients benefit from reduced operating costs, enhanced quality performance, enriched customer experiences, and competitive intelligence.

About Foreside

Foreside delivers comprehensive advice and best-in-class technology solutions to clients in the global asset and wealth management industries. Foreside distributes more than $1 trillion¹ of product through their 17 limited purpose broker-dealers. For 16 years, Foreside’s suite of services and platform-based model have helped automate and simplify compliance and marketing for clients. Foreside works with investment advisors, broker-dealers, global asset managers, and other financial institutions in support of their pooled investment products.

By harnessing state-of-the-art technology, Foreside helps firms address and shape today’s regulatory environment, drive operational efficiency and growth, and focus on value-adding work. Foreside is headquartered in Portland, Maine, with numerous regional offices, including New York and Boston. For more information on Foreside’s suite of services, please visit www.foreside.com.

¹ as of August 1, 2021