“Control Room is most effective when it’s part of an integrated compliance platform. By connecting Control Room with Employee Compliance and eComms, ComplianceAlpha® gives firms a single system to manage sensitive information such as MNPI, deals, and firm holdings, along with restrictions and conflicts. Together, these tools create a connected compliance program that's built to grow with the business, providing a blueprint for firms to scale in the alternative asset management space.”
Overview
The growth of private credit, interval funds, BDCs, and other alternative investment strategies has made compliance more complex. Firms are managing more investments across multiple funds and strategies, and these types of investments involve a lot more Non‑Disclosure Agreement (NDA) activity than traditional public market investing.
Because of this, compliance teams need a clear view of activity across the firm, including which companies they are exposed to, which funds those investments sit in, and where they fall within the capital structure. They also need to understand what Managing Material Nonpublic Information (MNPI) is, ongoing deals, existing restrictions and potential conflicts.
Whether a firm runs a single fund or many strategies, they need a centralized way to manage sensitive information and maintain proper oversight. This case study highlights how one alternative asset manager modernized its compliance operations to support ongoing growth.
The Challenge
Fragmented Systems and Limited Visibility
A leading alternative asset manager specializing in private credit, interval funds, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), private equity, and other private fund strategies faced growing complexity in MNPI, deal activity, firm holdings, restrictions, and conflicts.
The firm’s mixture of fund structures with different regulatory requirements added further complexity. As investment activity grew across funds, the firm needed a centralized way to track everything and more easily identify potential conflicts and compliance risks.
The firm’s compliance systems had grown over time, resulting in many disconnected systems, such as:
- MNPI (including NDAs and expert network meetings) was tracked in a homegrown Microsoft Access® database
- Firm holdings were spread across multiple systems supporting different advisers and funds
- Deal activity was manually tracked in spreadsheets
- Employee trading and conflicts were monitored in a standalone employee trading system. Restrictions for MNPI, deals, and holdings were manually added from the different systems
- Deal‑related communications were managed in a separate legacy communications surveillance platform
There was also no central Security Master, which made it hard to standardize issuers across the different systems and perform conflict checks.
As a result, the firm’s compliance systems struggled to keep up with the firm’s growth.
Lack of Centralized Compliance Oversight
- There was no single view of MNPI, deals, firm holdings, and restrictions
- Conflict checks required manual work across different systems
- The team lacked a consolidated view of firm exposure
- Restrictions couldn’t be easily applied or tracked directly from deals or MNPI
- Employee personal and business activities along with gifts and entertainment data were not integrated into conflict reviews
- Communications surveillance data was separated from deal and MNPI workflow
Solution and Business Impact
A Centralized Control Room Built for Private Markets
The firm replaced manual spreadsheets and disconnected systems by moving to ComplianceAlpha’s end-to-end platform using Control Room, Employee Compliance (EC), and eComms Surveillance modules, powered by a centralized Security Master that supports both public and private market investments.
Control Room + Security Master
- One system for tracking sensitive information, including MNPI, deals, and firm holdings
- Restrictions are managed at the deal or MNPI level and automatically sent to EC screening lists with the option to include all related companies.
- All companies, both public and private, tied to MNPI, deals, and firm holdings, are standardized in the Security Master and reused consistently across the platform, including for conflict checks
- On the record, users can view relevant data pulled from the Security Master, including the ultimate parent issuer, identifiers, and all related companies.
- Firm holdings are imported daily via SFTP and matched to the Security Master at the issuer level, standardizing data for conflict checks while providing a consistent, fund‑level view of positions across the capital structure.
- Fund‑level tagging makes it easy to see conflicts and exposure across different funds.
Employee Compliance
- Firm holdings imported into Control Room automatically feed EC screening lists
- EC screening lists are automatically updated with restrictions from Control Room deal and MNPI records with the option of including all related companies
- Personal holdings and transactions, Outside Business Activities (OBAs), and gifts and entertainment are included in conflict checks in the Control Room
eComms Surveillance
- Communications surveillance is embedded directly into deal and MNPI records to support pre-deal approvals and identify any relevant employee communications
Results
Unified Compliance Oversight
An integrated Control Room, supported by a centralized Security Master, brings together firm holdings, MNPI, deals, employee activity, and communications into a single workflow. This gives compliance teams consistent oversight across the firm while helping the business move faster and scale with confidence by:
- Establishing a central source of truth for conflict reviews, restrictions, and compliance decisions
- Consolidating MNPI activity, deal records, and firm holdings into a single compliance platform
- Incorporating firm and employee activity into conflict checks across Control Room and EC
- Improving operational efficiency by reducing manual processes and streamlining workflows
Compliance Built for Alternative Investments Complexity
ACA’s ComplianceAlpha end-to-end approach helps firms scale private market strategies without compromising oversight. By bringing MNPI, deals, firm holdings, employee activity, and communications together in one connected workflow, compliance teams gain the clarity and control they need to support growth today and as the business evolves.
Whether you’re expanding into new strategies, managing cross‑fund exposure, or modernizing legacy compliance processes, our ComplianceAlpha platform helps reduce fragmentation, strengthen governance, and keep pace with regulatory expectations, without adding operational burden.