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The NGT Skills catalogue

What the library of NGT Skills covers: the ten categories with examples, the three kinds of skill, and the labels for role, process, jurisdiction and asset type.

NGT writes skills for the work investment operations teams do every day, and for building in SPARK itself: about 500, in ten categories. This page maps the library. The Skills page in Agent Studio holds every skill, each readable in full (see Skills). What a skill is, and how an agent uses one, is in NGT Skills.

SkillsReusable instructions an agent loads when its task calls for them.NewCustom skillsMonth-end NAV checksThe checks a NAV packpasses before it goes t…CategoryAnalytics26 skillsControls24 skillsData35 skillsFund Industry62 skillsMathematics43 skillsOversight53 skillsPrivate Assets110 skillsRegulation57 skillsReporting38 skillsSpark Ecosystem54 skills
The Skills page: one card per category, with how many skills it holds.

Three kinds

Every skill is one of three kinds, the Kind labels of the Skills page:

KindWhat it is
ProcedureSteps to run a task end to end, with the tool for each step. Most skills are procedures.
ReferenceRules, definitions and methods an agent looks up.
Spark how-toHow to do something with Spark itself.

Ten categories

Each skill sits in one category, the first shelf of the Skills page.

Analytics

Measuring a portfolio: performance and attribution, risk and stress tests, liquidity and exposure, cash flows, and the look-through an investor in private funds needs. For example:

  • Performance Calculation (TWR, Dietz, IRR)
  • Performance Attribution (Brinson, FI, FX)
  • Risk Metrics (Vol, VaR, Drawdown, Ratios)
  • Independent NAV Estimate
  • Portfolio Liquidity Bucketing

Controls

The manager's own controls: four eyes, the audit trail, change control, operational resilience under DORA, data privacy and the compliance programme. For example:

  • Maker-Checker (Four-Eyes)
  • Audit Trail and Reproducibility
  • Change Control (Methodology and Model Changes)
  • DORA Incident Management and Reporting
  • User Access Review

Data

The data operations run on: security and fund static data, identifiers, market data and calendars, data quality, and integrations with administrators and vendors. For example:

  • Security Master Daily Review
  • Identifier Disambiguation for Securities and Entities
  • As-Of Date Discipline and Bitemporal Modeling
  • Data Quality Checks
  • FinDatEx EMT and EPT Production

Fund Industry

How funds run, day to day and over their life: dealing and cut-offs, share classes and distributions, launches, mergers and liquidations, distributors, and Luxembourg's fund landscape. For example:

  • Dealing Cut-Off and Late Trading Control
  • Fund, Sub-Fund or Share Class Launch
  • Hedged Share Class Monitoring
  • Income Equalisation for Distributing Share Classes
  • Trailer Fee and Retrocession Calculation

Mathematics

References rather than procedures, so that an agent's calculations rest on a method: arithmetic and estimation, algebra and calculus, statistics, time series, econometrics and quantitative finance. For example:

  • Arithmetic · Estimation and Sanity Checks
  • Statistics · Hypothesis Testing
  • Time Series · Volatility Modelling
  • Quantitative Finance · Fixed Income
  • Quantitative Finance · The Greeks and Hedging

Oversight

Overseeing a fund's delegates and the daily controls around its NAV: NAV packs and breaches, reconciliations, fees, liquidity, valuation and the depositary's duties. For example:

  • Daily Share Class NAV Oversight Review
  • Administrator NAV Pack Review
  • Price Challenge Review
  • Custodian Position and Cash Reconciliation
  • NAV Error and Investment Breach Handling (CSSF 24/856)

Private Assets

The largest category: the work of a private fund manager (the GP) and of the investors committed to its funds (the LPs), across private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure. For example:

  • Capital Call Issuance (GP Side)
  • Distribution Waterfall and Notices
  • Portfolio Company Valuation (IPEV)
  • Loan Covenant Compliance Monitoring
  • LP Fee and Expense Validation

Regulation

The rules funds and their managers work under, by regime and by country, and the procedures they call for: UCITS, AIFMD, SFDR, PRIIPs and MiFID II, the US Acts and SEC forms, KYC and AML. For example:

  • UCITS (EU Retail Fund Regime)
  • SFDR and ESG Disclosure (EU)
  • PRIIPs KID Production and Monthly Update
  • Form N-PORT Monthly Portfolio Report
  • Investor Onboarding KYC and AML Acceptance

Reporting

What goes to investors, clients and supervisors: factsheets and annual reports, regulatory returns, ILPA and GIPS reporting, and due diligence questionnaires. For example:

  • Monthly Fund Factsheet
  • Annual Report and Audit Cycle
  • Monthly UCI Returns to CSSF, BCL and Central Bank
  • ILPA Reporting Template
  • RFP and DDQ Response

Spark Ecosystem

How to build in SPARK: workflows, data objects, canvases and charts, agents, spaces, and reading documents. Several come with SPARK's own tools (see Skills that come with tools). For example:

  • Workflow Authoring
  • Data Object Design
  • Agent Authoring
  • Document Extraction
  • Turn a Chat Analysis Into a Workflow

Labels across the categories

Skills also carry labels that cut across the categories, each family a shelf of the Skills page, so you can gather the skills for one job:

  • Process: the work a skill belongs to. NAV, Pricing and valuation, Fees, Reconciliation, Compliance, Liquidity, Risk, Performance, Investor reporting, Regulatory reporting, Capital activity, Data quality, Reference data, Documents, Tax, Fund distribution, Fund life cycle, and Trading and settlement.
  • Role: who runs the procedure or looks the reference up, listed below.
  • Jurisdiction: where its rules apply. EU, Luxembourg, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom and United States.
  • Asset type: Liquid funds (UCITS, money market funds and open-ended AIFs) or Private assets (private equity, debt, real estate and infrastructure funds).
  • Kind: Procedure, Reference or Spark how-to, above.

Open a label's card to list its skills, with the line the app gives the label.

Roles

RoleWho it is
Conducting officerRuns a ManCo or AIFM and oversees its delegates.
Portfolio managerInvests within the mandate and its limits.
Risk managerRuns the permanent risk management function.
Compliance officerRuns the compliance function: rules, breaches and registers.
Valuation analystPrices holdings and runs the valuation function.
Performance analystMeasures returns and attribution against benchmarks, and keeps GIPS composites.
Middle officeSupports trading: confirmations, settlement, corporate actions and positions.
Fund accountantCalculates, books and checks the NAV.
Transfer agentKeeps the register of investors: dealing, investor cash and KYC.
DepositaryHolds the assets, monitors cash flows and checks the manager.
Investor relationsReports and answers to investors and clients.
Distribution managerMarkets funds, onboards distributors and registers funds abroad.
Regulatory reporting analystPrepares and files returns to supervisors.
Tax managerHandles fund and investor tax.
GP fund operationsA private fund manager's finance and operations team.
LP investment operationsAn investor's team that follows its private fund commitments.
Data stewardKeeps reference and static data, and its quality.
Spark builderBuilds workflows, agents and spaces in Spark.

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