Accuracy and efficiency in Annex IV reporting are more important than ever in the current landscape of mounting regulatory pressure. At Centralis we have long supported alternative investment firms in meeting their reporting obligations but now we’re taking reporting to the next level.
Through a strategic partnership with Datox, who have built a platform with support from the FCA through their Digital Sandbox program, Centralis has launched a powerful, AI-led Annex IV reporting platform that streamlines complexity, reduces risk, and scales effortlessly.
Innovation meets expertise
The engine behind the new platform was developed by Datox and refined in close collaboration with Centralis experts. While Datox brought advanced data science and engineering capabilities to the table, Centralis has provided deep regulatory insight, client-side experience, and real-world context. Together, the teams turned a highly capable tool into a purpose-built solution tailored to the unique challenges of Annex IV compliance.
Powered by the FCA Digital Sandbox
A key milestone in this journey was Datox’s inclusion in the FCA’s Digital Sandbox – an initiative designed to foster innovation in financial services. As part of the programme, Datox was granted access to synthetic datasets, expert mentorship, and the opportunity to test its solution in a secure, regulator-backed environment.
The result? A platform that not only meets regulatory standards but is informed by them. In recognition of its innovation, Datox’s solution was featured in the FCA’s ‘AI Spotlight’ this year as an innovative solution with strong potential to benefit and scale investment and asset management firms.
Turning technology into a practical solution
The platform prioritises the use of source data of differing formats and styles from disparate sources, such as NAV packs and investor capital statements, saving clients the time otherwise spent on preparing templates.
Moreover, the client experiences a seamless review process; reviewers can review funds in isolation for precision, or side-by-side for comparison/expedience. Calculated fields have drill-down functionality providing absolute clarity, and reviewers can comment on specific fields for manual clarification from the preparer before eventually approving. This keeps queries, resolutions and approvals native, creating a lasting audit trail – great for compliance record-keeping!
Centralis joined the project at a critical stage – bringing practical compliance know-how and end-user perspective to the final development phase.
As Alexander Prentice, Commercial Director at Centralis explains: “Datox had already built an extremely powerful tool. But Annex IV reporting is rarely uniform – each fund has its quirks and things change. That’s where our team came in: to help make the platform more responsive, more intuitive, and ultimately, more valuable to fund managers.”
Smart, scalable and purpose-built
The outcome is a seamless solution designed to grow with our clients. Leveraging machine learning, the solution analyses structured and unstructured data, applies prior rules from past submissions, and flags anomalies for review. This cuts down on errors, and ensures consistent, high-quality filings across multiple reporting cycles.
Future-proofing Annex IV compliance
Scalability is another game-changer. Whether you’re submitting reports for two funds or fifty, the platform adapts – allowing Centralis to onboard new mandates quickly and handle data variation with ease. Clients can have confidence that their reports will be completed accurately, consistently, and on time.
Most importantly, this isn’t a bolt-on to an existing system, it’s a solution designed from the ground up to handle data from source right through to generating the submission file – minimising the risk of manual user error. With Centralis’s regulatory expertise and Datox’s AI innovation, our platform does more than automate compliance – it redefines it.
Ready to improve your reporting?
Ready to improve your Annex IV reporting? Speak to us today and find out how our intelligent solution can support your compliance needs – efficiently, reliably, and at scale.