Matthew Priestley
Over 20 years experience in the asset management industry from: Investment Management and Risk Oversight; Financial Advice; Risk Management and Operational Policies and Procedures and Product Governance. More latterly helping firms with their Governance Frameworks.
Matthew’s early career, after Gartmore, was spent as a wealth manager, at Barclays Wealth, UBS and HSBC Global Asset Management. He started his oversight career, when he was asked at HSBC to set up and run a portfolio management team responsible for £2.4bn FUM. This he did for five years before moving to head office to spend two years on a FCA Section 166 to give the business better oversight and controls over its investment management, financial advice and financial products.
From working through a number of regulatory issues with consultants and the FCA he realised that oversight and controls were becoming a key tenant that the FCA wanted to see firms spend a lot more time on and get right. He understands how the FCA wants to see firms identify Conduct Risks from such sources as management information for senior boards to review. Due to Matthew’s practitioner experience, he is adapt at giving senior management the necessary oversight, MI and controls that they need to prove the business is being controlled and all risks, especially customer risks, are being identified and monitored.
From that experience he become head of an Investment Management Oversight team at an Authorised Corporate Director, FundRock Partners, where he worked directly with asset managers, depositaries and the FCA. His firm took on the regulatory risks of various asset managers running and selling various multi-asset class propositions. It was therefore imperative that he could prove that his firm had the right level of oversight and that good customer outcomes were being achieved (he worked closely with the FCA). Where these were not being achieved, as ACD his firm owned the product and so Matthew was tasked with working with the asset management firms to improve any area identified as a potential concern.
Matthew’s core areas of understanding and therefore ability to advise on: Investment processes for multi-asset class propositions, Volatility bands and Stochastic modelling. Monitoring and Due Diligence Oversight in terms of Operational Controls and Procedures to incorporate Regulations, Risk Controls, Governance and Investment Management to deliver compliant and value for money investment services and products.
Matthew is a great believer in the finance industry producing good customer outcomes, which comes from offering appropriate oversight and protection for financial consumers, he set up his own company called Governance Connect. His firm helps financial companies with their overall Governance Frameworks, Systems and Controls. As a result he is passionate about the industry being transparent and so has become an ambassador for the Transparency Task Force.
