Cardano Advisory has launched new artificial intelligence technology that should help change the way covenant assessments are provided to smaller pension schemes.
The technology, called Discover, utilises Cardano’s database of historical covenant assessments. The AI tools use this data to provide automated assessments and reports for schemes to analyse their covenant strength.
Discover has been designed for schemes with assets less than £50m and simple covenant structures. Discover can also conduct AI-led reviews of the underlying employers of sectionalised or non-associated multi-employer schemes, including local government pension schemes (LGPS).
Based on both key quantitative and qualitative factors, Discover provides an employer covenant rating, examining the main drivers underlying the rating, benchmarking rating metrics, and providing corresponding recommendations.
As well as giving comfort that employer covenant views have been externally validated, the technology can be used to support triennial valuations, scheme return submissions and ongoing monitoring, and risk assessments. It can also be utilised to explore the covenant impact of ‘what-if’ scenarios, for example an improvement in the sponsor’s trading or an increase in its debt.
Cardano Advisory director Felix Mantz says: “Discover is a further step towards modernisation within the pensions industry, as we continue to harness new technology to build tools and solutions for schemes. With our wealth of data, we can increasingly harness this through AI to bring innovative risk management solutions to trustees, employers, and members in a cost-effective manner.
“Traditional covenant reviews involve in-depth analysis from a team of dedicated covenant professionals and can be out of reach for smaller schemes due to costs. Given the importance of covenant to member outcomes, and with an increased focus from The Pensions Regulator on covenant, we believe that Discover will make external covenant analysis more accessible and affordable to smaller, simple, or sectionalised schemes.”
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