The portfolio management solution has been installed at the Toronto investment arm of Empire Financial Group for trade entry, security set-up, fund management and report generation. A remote connection to Portia is also provided in the company’s Kingston office, where corporate accounting is centralised. This office uses Portia to generate reports on investment results for various constituencies, including shareholders and management.

At present, 36 users across the front- to back-office are utilising Portia to streamline the workflow associated with managing assets of Empire Financial’s subsidiaries and related companies totaling CAD $5 billion.

“We made the decision to spend a fair amount of time customising our use of Portia, particularly the performance module and reconciliation of pricing data we import,” says Jill Pepall, Empire’s vice president of investments. “Since our portfolio managers are looking for exactness on yields, we can’t afford to be one or two basis points off, so using Portia helps us handle the details with precision.”

The insurer also worked with Thomson Financial to fine-tune precise entry of bond ratings from Scotia McLeod, DBRS (Dominion Bond Rating Services) and S&P Bond Ratings.

Valerie Wilkinson, Empire Financial group manager of investment administration and compliance, comments: “Far less time is required for a variety of tasks such as generating reports on current inventory, market value, tracking and projecting cash balances, as well as performance reporting that goes beyond just portfolios to include industry, asset class and currency. The ability to store a great deal more information on individual trades and securities within Portia is also significant for us.”