New York-based investment firm BlackRock, Inc., announced that its fund of hedge funds group received top honours at the American Financial Technology Awards’ “Best Risk Analytics Initiative,” an event meant to recognize industry leaders in financial technology in wholesale banking.
The team at BlackRock was commended on their development of a risk analytics engine that allows institutional investors to analyze hedge fund risks alongside with those of traditional long-only portfolios. A key feature of the new engine is its ability to alleviate certain of the short comings experienced by investors when applying the Sharpe ratio and other standard performance evaluation metrics, originally developed for equities portfolios, to hedge funds and other alternative assets.
“BlackRock has always recognized the importance of risk analytics and technology and since the firm’s inception we have continually developed a broad range of risk tools and services designed to streamline and enhance the investment management process,” said Howard Berkowitz, managing director and head of BlackRock’s fund of hedge funds group.