Following the acquisition of the business of Tempo Structured Products, by Hilbert Investment Solutions, ‘TICS’ (the Tempo Issuer and Counterparty Scorecards) has been rebranded as ‘HICS’ (the Hilbert Issuer and Counterparty Scorecards).

HICS will be accessed via the Tempo website, but will move to the Hilbert UK website (which is currently being rebranded and redesigned) in due course.

ABOUT ‘HICS’: The Hilbert Issuer and Counterparty Scorecards

We are an independent plan manager (not a bank issuing its own bonds / securities / products).

We think it’s straightforward – and important – to state the obvious:

• Issuer and counterparty risk is the most fundamental risk of a structured product.
• Both the potential returns of a structured product and the repayment of capital usually depend upon the financial stability of the issuer / counterparty throughout the investment term.
• Professional advisers and investors should seek to identify structured products which are backed by strong issuers / counterparties: not least as this is a regulatory requirement / expectation for professional advisers.

There are a number of metrics which are widely considered relevant in identifying and assessing the financial strength / credit risk of a prospective issuer / counterparty.

The UK retail structured products sector / plan managers and professional advisers have ‘upped their game’ over recent years, in respect of this critical aspect of ‘getting structured products right’, since the global financial crisis.

But we think that more could and should be done by the structured products sector and structured product plan managers to prompt professional advisers to carefully consider this critical aspect of structured products and to support them in their research and due diligence: the importance of this aspect of professional adviser research should be considered absolutely key.

Module 4 of our Professional Adviser Academy explains counterparty research, including credit ratings, credit default swaps (’CDS’) and balance sheet fundamentals.

‘HICS’ (the Hilbert Issuer and Counterparty Scorecards) provides professional advisers with access to multiple, widely recognised indicators of financial strength / credit risk, pertinent to objectively analysing, assessing, understanding and comparing issuer / counterparty financial strength / credit risk, using a robust methodology, including a scoring system, supporting best practice professional adviser issuer / counterparty research and due diligence.

Please take the time to look at the ‘HICS: Introduction and overview’ and ‘HICS: Methodology (weighting and scoring)’presentations, which introduce and overview HICS, explain how to use HICS, also detailing what HICS is and what HICS is not.

There is also a ‘HICS: Workshop’ video webinar recording for professional advisers.

It is necessary to register / log-in to access HICS and the Academy (you only need to register once to access both).

HICS MATERIALS FOR PROFESSIONAL ADVISERS

HICS: INTRODUCTION
AND OVERVIEW

HICS: METHODOLOGY
(SCORING AND WEIGHTING)

HICS: WORKSHOP
VIDEO WEBINAR RECORDING

HICS: WORKSHOP
PRESENTATION