Company: A multi-billion-dollar hedge fund specializing in alternative investments, managing a diverse portfolio across multiple asset classes.
Location: United States
Financial Services Sector: Investment Management / Hedge Fund
Background
The firm had grown to over $12 billion in AUM with a team of 80+ employees. Over time, its compliance processes became increasingly fragmented, relying on a mix of legacy systems, spreadsheets, and manual tracking to meet evolving regulatory requirements.
Challenge
As the hedge fund expanded, its compliance team faced several critical challenges:
- Time-consuming manual processes: Essential tasks like reviewing brokerage statements and monitoring personal trading were labor-intensive.
- Siloed compliance tools: Separate systems for compliance monitoring, regulatory filings, and trade surveillance made it difficult to achieve an integrated view of risks.
- Regulatory pressures: With SEC exams becoming more data-centric, the need for accurate, audit-ready documentation was paramount.
- Scalability concerns: The firm needed a sustainable solution that could scale with business growth without relying on additional headcount.
“We realized that our compliance processes were manual, time-consuming, and inefficient. Chasing people down for brokerage statements, reviewing them, saving them—it was all taking up too much time. We needed a system that could make compliance both more efficient and more effective.”
– Partner and compliance leader, multi-billion-dollar hedge fund
Solution
Recognizing that adding personnel alone would not solve these challenges, the firm partnered with ACA to implement ComplianceAlpha®, an integrated regulatory technology platform built to streamline compliance.
Taking a phased approach, the firm addressed immediate compliance gaps while ensuring seamless integration with legacy infrastructure and day-to-day operations.
Modules Implemented:
- Compliance Management: Centralized regulatory workflows, documentation, and reporting.
- Employee Compliance: Automated the collection of brokerage statements and tracking of personal trading activity.
- Marketing and Financial Promotions Review: Centralized the review and approval of marketing materials to support regulatory compliance and global marketing standards.
- Market Abuse Surveillance: Monitored for suspicious trading behavior using rules-based analytics.
- eComms Surveillance: Captured and reviewed electronic communications to support regulatory oversight.
- E-Learning and Training: Delivered and tracked compliance training across the organization.
Results
Implementing ComplianceAlpha led to meaningful improvements across the firm’s compliance program. The client experienced:
- Significantly reduced manual effort, enabling the compliance team to focus on more strategic activities.
- Improved exam readiness through centralized documentation and automated reporting.
- Strengthened internal oversight through integrated surveillance capabilities.
- Improved ability to demonstrate the maturity of its compliance program to external stakeholders.
- A new scalable compliance model that supported growth without the need for additional headcount.
Why It Matters
In today’s complex regulatory environment, hedge funds are expected to demonstrate not only compliance but also operational efficiency, transparency, and risk mitigation.
This case study illustrates how partnering with ACA and implementing ComplianceAlpha enables firms to:
- Automate routine compliance workflows
- Identify and respond to risk more effectively
- Scale operations efficiently without increasing overhead
For firms facing similar challenges, an integrated compliance platform is more than just a modernization effort—it’s a strategic investment in resilience, agility, and long-term regulatory readiness.
How We Help
Whether you are looking to launch, grow, or protect your business, we offer tech-driven solutions designed to meet your compliance needs. Our ComplianceAlpha platform streamlines compliance operations with automation for trade surveillance, electronic communications monitoring, and more.
By reducing manual workloads and improving accuracy, ComplianceAlpha empowers your compliance team to focus on strategic initiatives that drive business growth. Join over 1,250 firms worldwide that trust ACA’s expertise.
Contact us today to learn how our innovative solutions can transform your compliance strategy and propel your business forward.