MPI’S ANALYSIS OF ALLIANZ STRUCTURED ALPHA PROVIDES KEY LESSONS FOR ASSET OWNERS

Markov Processes International, Inc. (“MPI”), a leading independent FinTech provider of software and services for analyzing investment performance and risk, today announced that their September 2021 analysis of the Structured Alpha fund has again been at the forefront of investment reporting this week after Allianz’s recent admission of fraud and the sale of its U.S. asset management business to Voya.

MPI’s original quantitative analysis utilizing its Stylus Pro software, with patented Dynamic Style Analysis (“DSA”), revealed that the fund was effectively selling market crash insurance and putting investors’ money at risk in the case of market collapse. The steady “alpha” that attracted investors, was nothing more than a stream of option premiums as long as markets remained tranquil – but there was little to indicate that investors in the fund would be protected if a significant market downturn were to occur. As such, investors utilizing such an analysis could have anticipated that they might get burned during a big sell-off (and that their apparent alpha was contingent on an insurance bet).

“The purpose of our analysis into Structured Alpha last Fall was not to play Monday morning quarterback, but to show investment analysts how complex strategies that employ derivatives, leverage and highly dynamic trades can still be well explained by returns-based factor analysis. Efficient and cost-effective quantitative analysis and monitoring of investment products should be a central component of any due diligence around such products, as it is for regulators like the SEC, compliance, auditing and risk professionals and institutional investors,” said Michael Markov, CEO and co-founder of MPI.