Independent price verification that explains or challenges every outlier before the NAV is struck
Every outlier explained or challenged before the NAV is struck, every override checked.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Independent price verification (IPV) is the daily check that a fund's prices are right: each evaluated price is tested against independent evidence — a second vendor, dealer quotes, reported trades — and a price that does not hold up is challenged with the vendor or overridden with a second person's check. Independent Price Verification from Botminds runs that process with six agents that read every quote, explain or flag each move and run the vendor challenges, while the pricing analyst decides and a second person checks.
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Independent price verification is a race against the clock. A fund complex prices tens of thousands of securities every evening, and the pricing team has two to three hours between the vendor files and the NAV to find the wrong prices. Static tolerances flag hundreds of exceptions a day, and most of them are moves the whole market made. Broker runs arrive in the shared pricing mailbox as free text, tables, PDFs and spreadsheets, some in German, Japanese or Portuguese, and analysts read them by eye and retype the levels.
The fixes are just as manual. Vendor price challenges are typed into portals and chased by email, an override carries a comment and a signature on a printout, and a portfolio manager's color can end up as the price. At month end someone counts challenges in a spreadsheet for the board. SEC Rule 2a-5 asks the valuation designee for a process for initiating price challenges and named override authority, and in May 2026 the Monetary Authority of Singapore found that managers challenged third-party prices too weakly and documented exceptions poorly.
Estimated split of the hours between the vendor files and the New York price lock, by hand and with the solution.
Six agents read every quote, explain or flag each move, run the vendor challenges and re-test every decision; the analyst decides, a second person checks.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 4:06 p.m. ET at Quillfield Capital, which prices 25,184 securities across 312 funds. The New York price lock is at 5:30 p.m. Pricing vendor A has Corvane Industries 6.500% Senior Notes due 2029, held by four funds at $84.0M par, at 101.80, while three dealers bid 99.10 to 99.60. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Jade's home shows four numbers: 25,184 prices tested, 618 exceptions with 471 explained by the market, 147 that need a person (129 still open, 32 of them hers), and 84 minutes to the New York lock. London and Singapore are already locked. Under “Needs you” are seven items, most urgent first, each with one button, and a box to ask the agents about any price, fund or vendor.
“Corvane 6.5% 2029 · vendor A revised 101.80 → 99.40 … move −2.40 needs the Valuation Manager after you.”
Each security is one strip: every quote a dot, the dealer spread shaded, the fund price a bold bar. Strips where the fund price sits outside the spread rise to the top — 101 of them today. Corvane is first, 2.45 points above the dealer median against a 1.00-point tolerance, and the right-hand column shows its challenge: sent to vendor A at 3:12 p.m., revised to 99.40 at 4:05 p.m. Altamira 5.875% 2028 has been with vendor A for 35 minutes, and a challenge on Granite Arc 6.125% 2031 is drafted, waiting for her.
“Show me the quotes on one line and I'll tell you in a second if the vendor is wrong.”
The Quote agent has read 1,312 broker runs from 46 dealers and six vendor files into 16,904 quotes, 16,890 of them mapped to the security master. Sakuragawa Securities' 3:02 a.m. run arrives as free text in Japanese; the screen shows it beside the English reading and the quote taken from it — Hokuyo 0.85% 2033 at 97.95 bid, 96% confidence. Free text like “99-11 / 99-19”, PDF attachments and spreadsheets are read the same way.
Below 95% parse or 98% mapping confidence the Quote agent hands the quote to the analyst. It never creates a price.
The case opens as a conversation with the agents beside the big strip. Halden 99.10, Northgate 99.35 and Kessler 99.60 bid the bond; $2.0M traded at 99.25; vendor B is at 99.55. The Outlier agent finds vendor A's 101.80 2.45 points above the 99.35 dealer median and ties the gap to the issuer's release: Corvane cut its FY2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $0.94B from $1.12B after the close. Every number carries a citation that opens its source — the release, the trade report, each dealer's email.
“The market does not explain it: high yield fell only 0.30 today … I recommend challenging vendor A.”
At 3:09 p.m. the Challenge agent drafted challenge C-24117 to vendor A with three broker runs, the trade and the issuer release attached, asking for 99.35. Jade answered “Send it.” The agent tracked the reply against the 60-minute rule, followed up at 3:57 p.m., and at 4:05 p.m. vendor A revised to 99.40: “Evaluator incorporated post-earnings dealer color and the 11:52 a.m. trade.” Before approving, Jade asks the agents what holding the prior price would mean.
“Holding the prior price 101.65 needs reason HD-01 and the Valuation Manager's approval … I would not recommend it while the vendor has answered before the lock.”
Jade approves the revised price with reason AP-02, “Vendor revised after challenge.” The Checker agent re-tests it against the pricing policy: inside the dealer spread, three independent quotes, the reason fits, maker Jade Morgan. The move is −2.40 points, above two, so it goes to Priya Raman. Across the four funds the market value falls $2,016,000; Quillfield High Yield Bond Fund −$1,164,000, 1.8 bp of its NAV.
The Checker agent cannot approve or check. It can only pass an item to a person or return it with a reason.
Most pricing exceptions are the market moving, not the vendor being wrong. The Exceptions screen holds 390 New York moves that sit inside their dealer spread, each with the agent's reason, its sources and a confidence — Taurina Energia 7.25% 2031, for one, fell after a Portuguese Fato Relevante cut its allowed revenue 11% from 2027. Before acceptance the Checker agent re-tests a 5% random sample, and Jade accepts the set in one step with reason EX-01.
Explained moves are proposed for acceptance; the agents never accept a price on their own.
Granite Arc 6.125% 2031: vendor B at 92.60 against three dealers at 90.75 to 91.30. The Challenge agent has drafted C-24140 to vendor B's challenge channel — “HY energy fell 0.9 points today as crude dropped 3.1%; vendor B moved only 0.35. Please review and reply before 5:00 p.m. ET.” — with the Halden, Kessler and Calloway quotes attached and 91.10, the dealer median, as the level asked. She can edit the message, then send.
The Challenge agent never sends without the analyst and never edits a price.
Priya's sign-off queue holds 44 items to check, with 21 escalations. Corvane is at the top — approved by Jade, 101.80 to 99.40, −2.40, above two — with the Checker agent's re-test beside it: inside spread, passes. Kept vendor prices that sit outside the spread show “reason needed”. She checks with CK-01 or returns an item with a reason, and she can never check an item she made.
“I don't re-do the work. I check the evidence and the reason.”
Singapore locked at 5:00 a.m. ET with 2,104 prices and London at 12:30 p.m. with 1,344, both released to the portfolio accounting platform and the fund administrator. For New York, 21,736 prices, the lock lists what still blocks it: 494 items — 390 explained moves to accept, 70 decisions, 34 checks. Daniel locks and releases when they clear; any price unresolved at 5:30 p.m. holds its prior-day value with the Valuation Manager's approval.
“The Fund Controller cannot change a price, only lock and release.”
The same pricing day, seen by five of the people who carry it — what it looked like by hand, and what it looks like now.
Six agents read every quote, explain or flag each move, run the vendor challenges and re-test every decision; the analyst decides, a second person checks.
Reads every vendor file and every broker run in the pricing mailbox — tables, free text, PDFs and spreadsheets, in any language — and maps each quote to the security master, flagging the quotes it cannot map.
Tests each fund price against its quotes and the fund's tolerance policy, static and dynamic, and explains moves by sector, rates, trades and issuer news.
Reads issuer news, notices and filings in their own language — English, Portuguese, German, Japanese — and links them to price moves, quoting the original beside the English.
Drafts the challenge to the pricing vendor with the dealer evidence attached and the dealer median as the level asked, sends it when the analyst says yes, tracks the reply against the 60-minute rule and the lock, follows up and escalates.
Re-tests every approval and override against the pricing policy — evidence present, inside the spread, reason valid, segregation of duties — and sends moves above two points to the Valuation Manager.
Seals every quote, decision and setting change in a hash chain, builds auditor and regulator packs, counts every challenge and drafts the monthly vendor report.
Maker, checker, lock, evidence. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any price, quote, challenge, fund or vendor, or say what to do. Every answer carries its citations, and no price changes without the analyst's approval.
Why is Corvane 6.5% 2029 an outlier?
Vendor A priced it at 101.80; three dealers bid 99.10 to 99.60 and $2.0M traded at 99.25. Corvane cut its FY2026 EBITDA guidance to $0.94B. The vendor revised to 99.40 at 4:05 p.m.
Which challenges could miss the price lock?
21 challenges are with a vendor. The two to watch: Altamira 5.875% 2028, 35 minutes with vendor A, and Hokuyo 0.85% 2033, 26 minutes with vendor B. At 5:00 p.m. I escalate anything unanswered to Priya Raman.
Show stale prices
40 prices are stale today, among them Hokuyo 0.85% 2033, unchanged six days while the yen curve moved 7 bp, and Sable Point 5% 2045, five days. Policy sets the stale rule by asset class.
What if I hold the prior price?
Holding the prior price 101.65 needs reason HD-01 and the Valuation Manager's approval. It would sit +2.30 from the dealer median. I would not recommend it while the vendor has answered before the lock.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Pricing tolerances, challenge rules, locks and retention are settings. Changes are proposed by the administrator and take effect when the Head of Valuation approves.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| HY corporates tolerance (Pricing Policy v4.3 §3) | 1.00 pt day over day · 1.00 against the dealer median · escalate above 2.00 · stale after 3 days | Set per asset class, from US Treasuries (0.25 · 0.15) to listed equities (10%), with the effect on today's exceptions shown before you propose |
| Dynamic bands | On, capped at twice static | On · off |
| Challenge when | Outside the dealer spread by more than the tolerance, with at least three independent quotes | Policy §4.2, versioned |
| Vendor reply | 60 minutes · follow-up at 45 · escalate to the Valuation Manager 30 minutes before the lock | Policy §4.5, versioned |
| Price locks | New York 5:30 p.m. ET · London 4:30 p.m. UK · Singapore 5:00 p.m. SGT | Set per region |
| Escalation | Above 2 points to the Valuation Manager; above 5 points or Level 3 to the Head of Valuation and the valuation committee | Policy §5.4 |
| Source hierarchy, HY corporates | Pricing vendor A → pricing vendor B → dealer median (at least 3) → hold prior | Ordered per asset class |
| Data and retention | 7 years · US funds in us-east, UCITS and AIFs in Frankfurt, Asia funds in Singapore | Residency, retention and entitlements by fund |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample pricing day · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (a pricing-software vendor on 10% to 30% of quotes challenged a month at a typical hedge fund; a market-data vendor's dynamic-tolerance backtest on volatile 2020 days, over 75% of static-tolerance challenges avoidable). Regulation named as context: SEC Rule 2a-5 (2020; compliance from September 8, 2022), Rule 31a-4, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) information paper on valuation practices (May 29, 2026). Pricing vendors are shown unnamed. People, firms, funds, dealers, issuers and numbers named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Independent price verification (IPV) is the daily check that a fund's prices are right: each evaluated price is tested against independent evidence — a second vendor, dealer quotes, reported trades — and a price that does not hold up is challenged with the vendor or overridden with a second person's check. Independent Price Verification from Botminds runs that process with six agents that read every quote, explain or flag each move and run the vendor challenges, while the pricing analyst decides and a second person checks.
The IPV process runs in order. Vendor files and broker runs come in and are mapped to each holding; every price is tested against its dealer spread and tolerance; moves the market explains are proposed for bulk acceptance; real outliers are challenged with the vendor; the analyst approves, keeps, overrides or holds with a reason code; a second person checks; and the Fund Controller locks and releases the prices for the NAV. Each step is on the audit trail.
When the fund price sits outside the dealer spread by more than the tolerance, with at least three independent quotes, the Challenge agent drafts the challenge with the dealer evidence attached and the dealer median as the level asked. It is sent only when the analyst says yes, and the reply is tracked against a 60-minute rule, with a follow-up at 45 minutes and escalation 30 minutes before the lock. On the sample bond the vendor revised its price 53 minutes after the challenge was sent.
Under Rule 2a-5, the SEC's fair value rule, the valuation designee oversees its pricing services, with a process for initiating price challenges and named override authority. Every challenge and reply is counted by vendor and asset class, every override goes to a second person, and the Evidence agent drafts the monthly pricing-service oversight report from the challenge records, with a citation behind every number, for the Head of Valuation to sign.
The stale rule is set by asset class — three days for high yield, five for municipals and loans, one for Treasuries and listed equities. Stale and single-source prices are flagged and quotes are requested from dealers; a stale price the dealer runs disagree with can be challenged, as Hokuyo 0.85% 2033 was after six unchanged days. On a single-source loan the portfolio manager's level is recorded as evidence only, and when nothing reliable arrives the analyst holds the prior price with reason HD-01 and the Valuation Manager's approval.
Yes. The Quote agent reads runs from the shared pricing mailbox as tables, free text such as “99-11 / 99-19”, PDF attachments and spreadsheets, in Japanese, German, Portuguese and other languages, and shows the original beside the English reading. A quote below 95% parse or 98% mapping confidence goes to the analyst to map.
Yes. The agents never accept a price, send a challenge unseen or edit a price. The pricing analyst decides, the Valuation Manager checks every override and every move above two points, nobody checks their own work, portfolio managers supply quotes as evidence only, and only the Fund Controller locks and releases.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your pricing policy, source hierarchy and a past pricing day — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. Setup ends with a test on a past day: on the sample, the agents raised every price the team had challenged, 49 of 49, and six more.
Every holding bucketed monthly, every override explained, no filing trigger missed.
1-min demoLiquidity Stress TestingEach fund's breach day found and evidenced, and the quarterly pack signed in a day.
1-min demoDerivatives Risk Management ProgramEvery daily VaR test explained in plain words, every escalation signed, no late N-RN.
1-min demoWe'll run Independent Price Verification on one of your own past pricing days — your vendor files, broker runs and tolerance policy.