Northern Trust Issues New PassPort

According to the announcement, the new Passport “provides an intuitive experience that eases collaboration and data integration across Northern Trust’s global operating platform for asset servicing and asset management”.    

“Sophisticated global investors know that Northern Trust Passport is a secure, one-stop entry point for asset information, functionality and the market-leading analytical tools they need to oversee large, complex portfolios,” said Paul d’Ouville, global head of product management for Corporate & Institutional Services at Northern Trust. “With our new Passport, institutional clients will leverage features that are familiar to Internet users worldwide to organize their desktop for maximum efficiency while maintaining the highest standards of security and data integrity.”  

According to the firm, Passport allows all users, whether the chief investment officer of a U.S. endowment, a U.K. hedge fund manager or an Asian central bank risk officer, to organize graphic presentation and detailed asset or portfolio reports to meet their needs.  

Aspects of the new Passport design – which has already been launched for more than 90% of Northern Trust’s institutional clients over the past year – include:  

• Task-focused layout utilizing “drag and drop” capabilities to customize the user experience.  
• “Type-ahead” search functionality for more precise retrieval of data, such as portfolio statements or asset list.  
• Dedicated, interactive workspace to define and schedule reports for electronic delivery to the destination of the client’s choice.  
• In-depth details about reports to ensure accuracy and visual graphics to enable clients to quickly locate the templates needed.  

According to the announcement, a key risk management tool on Passport is Exposure, which “enables clients to quickly collate information about exposure related to a single entity – either issuer or counterparty”. Through the Passport dashboard, clients can “immediately retrieve total holdings in any one issuer/counterparty across exposure types, asset types and accounts, including the option to peek-through to holdings in commingled funds,” according to a press release.  As the new Passport design is rolled out, Northern Trust continues to enhance Exposure and other tools for institutional clients.  

Exposure recently incorporated direct and indirect positions from securities lending collateral pools, in addition to:  

• Direct market exposure through physical securities and  
• Counterparty exposure to derivatives transactions.  

Noting that data retrieval and report generation are critical functions for all clients managing complex portfolios, Northern Trust notes that Passport now displays representative sample images of all reports in the template library along with descriptions and report parameters. According to the firm, running and scheduling reports is also made easier with the ability to create and save data filters that can auto-populate the report with a single click.  According to the announcement, more communication tools on the site allow users to multitask and save time.  

According to the press release, institutional clients can take advantage of the redesigned online learning within Passport that includes step-by-step instruction guides, video tutorials, integrated help topics on each page and enrollment opportunities for instructor-led, interactive training.    

"Our upgraded Passport is a product of melding our culture of client-focused development with user-centric design principles, creating a rich, intuitive user experience,” said Geordan Capes, global head of Passport product development at Northern Trust. “As investment complexity grows, it is even more important to harness the rapidly changing landscape of technology and build capabilities to enable clients to quickly retrieve the data they need to make smart decisions.”