iFVS
Level 3 iFVS Services

Financial institutions of all kinds, managing assets both for their own and/or customer accounts, are experiencing a sea change around expectations for alternative asset valuations. The status quo of dealer-generated marks and "internal guesstimates" acceptable in the past are no longer sufficient. This is especially true for illiquid, complex assets which rarely if ever trade. These are often a large portion of the balance sheet. Institutions normally designate such assets as Level 3 under the recently implemented FASB 157 guidelines. They typically generate their own modeled prices and marks for these but still suffer from lack of independence and transparency regarding their valuation.

Customers, counterparties, auditors, investors, regulators, governance participants, and internal accountants are placing increased demand for independent, transparent valuations of such assets as the global credit and liquidity crisis widens.

GPE's Level 3 iFVS™ Services give such institutions an independent, third party source for transparent prices for such assets. These prices are based on observable market inputs into simple transparent models which generate monthly and in some cases weekly valuation data. Once approved and understood, these may then be used to support internal accounting or modeling efforts or be upgraded to a formal Level 2 FASB 157 report for a slightly higher cost.

GPE first introduced simple but robust factor models for valuing distressed debt for hedge fund customers over 2 years ago. It has been a market leader in delivering independent, understandable valuations for alternative assets and illiquid debt products that give confidence to customers, investors, auditors, regulators, and accountants.

GPE has been extending these services to structured finance and private equity assets, and works closely and personally with each institutional customer to adapt GPE's models to meets the institution's needs for internal and external confidence in alternative asset valuations and thereby balance sheet integrity and transparency.

If you have interest in Level 3 Services, please directly contact our CEO, Douglas Miles, at 609-951-2265.