The path to accounting as a real-time data source
28 May 2025
Lior Yogev, CEO of FundGuard, takes a look at the Investment Book of Record and the legacy struggle it still suffers from
Image: FundGuard
The Investment Book of Record (IBOR) is an essential tool for asset managers, and should ideally provide multi-asset class, multi-jurisdiction, and multi-investment product views of cash, security positions, and tax lots across the entire investment lifecycle, powered by real-time accounting data and control frameworks. However, traditional IBOR systems built on outdated technology mostly lack the robust accounting capabilities, data flexibility, integrity, scalability and automation needed for modern investment operations.
This is where most asset managers are operating today — relying on limited legacy investment accounting and trade order management systems with fragmented asset coverage, batch processing, siloed data and cloud-enabled workarounds.
While Accounting Book of Record (ABOR) requirements are highly regulated and therefore more consistently defined, we have found that when asset managers talk about IBOR, the meaning or manifestations vary, often due to myopic ideas of what is possible outside the confines of outdated technologies that have failed to keep up with evolving needs.
When we founded FundGuard, we saw an opportunity to redefine investment accounting with transformative technology that would break the cycle of compromise we were seeing among asset managers.
We envisioned a unified investment accounting platform capable of powering multiple business views across the front, middle, and back office, with a single source of truth and robust accounting and data functionality to overcome today’s broken IBORs.
We see the evolution of IBOR as a critical step toward achieving this vision of a fully integrated, real-time investment accounting solution that altogether eliminates the need for multiple systems to support trading, accounting, custody recon and other uses of the funds or portfolios data. We believe it can:
- Eliminate data fragmentation: A single, real-time source of truth for positions, cash balances, and transactions.
- Support multi-asset and multi-book accounting: Cross-asset and cross-jurisdiction accounting views for front, middle and back office needs to support trading, accounting and custody recon as well as performance and client reporting.
- Scale and Automate: Replace batch processing with real-time data enabling more timely and better risk-adjusted and accounting-and-tax-aware decision-making, faster trade execution, and better compliance.
- Reduce costs and operational risk: Automate reconciliation, exception identification and investigation loop, settlement processing, and client and regulatory reporting.
A well-designed IBOR can transform asset management operations by eliminating inefficiencies, yet many firms still struggle to evolve beyond fragmented, outdated platforms.
Beyond IBOR: Achieving a unified view
With FundGuard’s cloud-native platform, asset managers move beyond traditional IBOR toward a Tier 7 real-time, multi-view accounting solution that unifies all asset classes, all books of record and all accounting views into a single, scalable system.
With it, asset managers benefit from having:
- Accounting as a real-time data source: Continuous intraday updates across all books of record, ensuring instant visibility into positions, tax lots, and cash balances.
- Unified front-to-back Integration: A single cloud-native platform replacing multiple accounting systems across asset managers, custodians, and fund administrators.
- Full asset coverage: A single hub that natively supports equities, fixed income, derivatives, OTCs and private assets all within a single system.
- Automated corporate actions and income processing: Reduces manual intervention, minimising operational risk and enhancing efficiency.
- Multi-dimensional reporting: All books of record, all asset classes, all investment products and all jurisdiction-specific views are generated in real time, eliminating the redundancy of multiple systems.
- Scalability without limits: Processes many millions of tax lots in real time, supporting firms from a few accounts to thousands.
We see FundGuard’s approach as not just another step forward, but as a complete redefinition of investment accounting.
This is where most asset managers are operating today — relying on limited legacy investment accounting and trade order management systems with fragmented asset coverage, batch processing, siloed data and cloud-enabled workarounds.
While Accounting Book of Record (ABOR) requirements are highly regulated and therefore more consistently defined, we have found that when asset managers talk about IBOR, the meaning or manifestations vary, often due to myopic ideas of what is possible outside the confines of outdated technologies that have failed to keep up with evolving needs.
When we founded FundGuard, we saw an opportunity to redefine investment accounting with transformative technology that would break the cycle of compromise we were seeing among asset managers.
We envisioned a unified investment accounting platform capable of powering multiple business views across the front, middle, and back office, with a single source of truth and robust accounting and data functionality to overcome today’s broken IBORs.
We see the evolution of IBOR as a critical step toward achieving this vision of a fully integrated, real-time investment accounting solution that altogether eliminates the need for multiple systems to support trading, accounting, custody recon and other uses of the funds or portfolios data. We believe it can:
- Eliminate data fragmentation: A single, real-time source of truth for positions, cash balances, and transactions.
- Support multi-asset and multi-book accounting: Cross-asset and cross-jurisdiction accounting views for front, middle and back office needs to support trading, accounting and custody recon as well as performance and client reporting.
- Scale and Automate: Replace batch processing with real-time data enabling more timely and better risk-adjusted and accounting-and-tax-aware decision-making, faster trade execution, and better compliance.
- Reduce costs and operational risk: Automate reconciliation, exception identification and investigation loop, settlement processing, and client and regulatory reporting.
A well-designed IBOR can transform asset management operations by eliminating inefficiencies, yet many firms still struggle to evolve beyond fragmented, outdated platforms.
Beyond IBOR: Achieving a unified view
With FundGuard’s cloud-native platform, asset managers move beyond traditional IBOR toward a Tier 7 real-time, multi-view accounting solution that unifies all asset classes, all books of record and all accounting views into a single, scalable system.
With it, asset managers benefit from having:
- Accounting as a real-time data source: Continuous intraday updates across all books of record, ensuring instant visibility into positions, tax lots, and cash balances.
- Unified front-to-back Integration: A single cloud-native platform replacing multiple accounting systems across asset managers, custodians, and fund administrators.
- Full asset coverage: A single hub that natively supports equities, fixed income, derivatives, OTCs and private assets all within a single system.
- Automated corporate actions and income processing: Reduces manual intervention, minimising operational risk and enhancing efficiency.
- Multi-dimensional reporting: All books of record, all asset classes, all investment products and all jurisdiction-specific views are generated in real time, eliminating the redundancy of multiple systems.
- Scalability without limits: Processes many millions of tax lots in real time, supporting firms from a few accounts to thousands.
We see FundGuard’s approach as not just another step forward, but as a complete redefinition of investment accounting.
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