Financial crisis will change client reporting, according to Credit Suisse executive

In response to my question about how the current financial crisis will impact performance measurement and reporting, Stefan Illmer, head of client reporting for Credit Suisse, said that the investment industry needs standards for client reporting.

He said he wasn’t referring to performance reporting to clients, but to a broader array of topics such as valuation, pricing, transparency, and disclosures.

For example, if a firm regularly runs return attribution software, it will immediately notice when a bond defaults because there will be no price for the bond. Of course, that assumes that the firm doesn’t let the portfolio manager define the price for the bond.

Illmer answered my question during the Q&A section of his Sept. 25 presentation on “The Future of Performance Measurement” at the CFA Institute’s GIPS Standards Annual Conference in Boston.
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Susan B. Weiner, CFA

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