Gravitas Technology Signs Manhasset Capital for Its Outsourced Compliance Solution,and more

Gravitas Technology Signs Manhasset Capital for Its Outsourced Compliance Solution

Manhasset Capital Management, a long/short equity hedge fund (established in 2005) that focuses on small and mid-cap U.S. equity stocks, has selected Gravitas Technology, an IT services firm specializing in the alternative investment community, to provide a compliance solution and disaster recovery plan for its offices in midtown Manhattan.

"Given that IT is outside of our core competencies, it was important to seek out a high-quality service provider with specialized expertise in hedge funds," stated Chris Thorsheim, Manhasset Capital's COO, in a release. "Two key objectives were to provide our users with remote connectivity to the corporate network ... and to make sure we are current with all compliance and regulatory requirements. Gravitas' experience in this area gave us comfort that our needs would be well served."

Gravitas' expertise in compliance and regulatory issues assists hedge funds and other alternative investment funds implement the appropriate technology solutions to achieve regulatory compliance as dictated by the SEC under the Investment Advisor Act of 1940 Rule 206(4)-7, according to the release. Gravitas has developed a compliance solution that provides a turnkey approach to the challenges associated with retention and search capabilities for e-mail, IM, Blackberry and records, as well as disaster recovery for business continuity planning. Antispam and antivirus capabilities for e-mail also are included in this solution.

Jayesh Punater, president and founder of Gravitas Technology, stated in a release: "With Gravitas' recommendation, our clients are able to get the right partner to suit their individual needs. Our compliance solution is a highly cost-effective method that will save hedge funds tens of thousands of dollars in upfront costs by converting them into manageable monthly recurring expenses resulting in a fraction of the costs of implementing these systems in house."

Fifteen Financial Institutions Convene to Tackle Business Continuity Issues

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) announced last week that 15 financial institutions and technology companies have undertaken its Resiliency Maturity Model Project, the goal of which is to create the first benchmarks for continuity planning that traverse all areas of a financial enterprise.

This project is a follow-up to the Business Continuity Compliance Project that concluded in June 2005. That effort clarified a confusing web of 100 global continuity regulations and digested them into a commonly understood language and a single set of terms.

"Currently, there are no industrywide benchmarks against which institutions can measure their resiliency performance and make investment decisions," said Zachary Tumin, executive director of FSTC, in a release. "The results of this effort will be invaluable to the industry going forward."

"Financial institutions and technology providers have joined forces ... to develop a methodology that will allow organizations to measure and monitor their resilience against a common standard," said Charles M. Wallen, managing executive of FSTC's Business Continuity Standing Committee, and project director. "We are partnering with a world renowned research organization whose work in maturity models for technology organizations is a proven framework that FSTC members can adapt to resiliency for people, technology and processes in financial services."

FSTC brings together diverse and often competitive financial institutions, industry services providers, government agencies and others to collaborate and find solutions to key industry challenges. Project topics come from member financial institutions and are driven by participating members with the support of FSTC staff, according to the release.