Financial administration, investment administration and reporting
Financial administration
We also take care of the complete financial administration for pension fund boards. Here we use a broad interpretation of the financial administration. This means that DPS annually draws up the fund budget in consultation with the board and translates this fund budget into a quarterly monitoring report. Our financial administration also compiles a revised forecast on a quarterly basis in which a projection of cost realization is made so that the fund board can make adjustments, or not, to the financial operations of the pension fund.
The financial administration department performs the fund's complete accounting where investment administration and pension administration are fully integrated. This means that a complete overview of the fund's overall financial position exists based on a single version of the truth. Because we perform our own financial administration internally, we have real-time full insight into the pension funds' cash flows, from receipt of pension contributions to pension payments and from individual investment transactions to return calculations.
From the financial administration, the annual report of the pension fund is prepared every year. DPS compiles the financial statements and supports the pension fund board in the preparation of the annual report. In the process, compliance with reporting rules is reviewed and full transparency is sought.
The core processes of the financial administration are included in the scope of the ISAE Type II assurance report.
Investment administration
We run our own investment administration independently as a countervailing power to the pension fund's custodian bank in which we administer, value and monitor all investments in terms of positions and transactions. Within the investment administration, we process all corporate actions, and support collateral management on account of currency and interest rate overlay. We also perform related cash management and facilitate repo transaction settlement for the pension funds as an additional source of liquidity.
Investment administration administers all investment mandates (internal and external) at line level. Additionally, we administer and monitor the securities lending program independently of the custodian bank. We monitor best execution of pension fund transactions, monitor and support transition managers and verify the accuracy of reported transition costs, monitor market exposures during transition and report to fiduciary management.
Investment administration reviews compliance with the frameworks and guidelines established in the investment policy on a daily basis. The investment administration reports deviations to the fiduciary management where, depending on the nature of the deviation, it is escalated to the Board of Trustees or adjusted within the given policy scope.Finally, we calculate completely independently the investment return and benchmark return of the pension fund.
The core investment administration processes are included in the scope of the ISAE Type II assurance report. Additionally, the return calculation is independently tested via GIPS© verification by an external auditor.
Reporting
We provide pension fund boards with all internal and external reporting. We tailor the reports to the needs of the board by jointly deriving the design and method of steering measures and signaling variables. In doing so, we are able to provide full customization so that the maximum insights and steering information is unlocked. We also take care of all sustainability reports.
Externally, we take care of the processing of all supervisory reports to DNB. We compile the supervisory reports within a controlled and tested process and relieve the funds of all their worries, even in the event of changes to the reporting structure or new additional requirements.