Biography
Cindy Kent was a director of investment performance standards at CFA Institute. She was responsible for developing, promulgating, and maintaining the GIPS standards. Kent's primary roles included managing the global adoption of and alignment of country-specific investment performance standards with the GIPS standards, developing educational and training products to promote the GIPS standards, and serving as staff liaison to the various committees addressing specific issues of the GIPS standards.
The broad reach of the GIPS standards grows significantly with the addition of GIPS Sponsors in Saudi Arabia and China.
GIPS 20:20 is the next update of the GIPS standards and the focus is on ensuring that the Standards are relevant for all asset classes and types of asset managers.
The basic principle and fundamental motivation in creating the GIPS standards — now officially adopted in 35 countries around the globe — is investor protection, and empowering those who advise investors with the key elements to analyze investment performance results in a comparative method.
A positive outcome of the recent economic turmoil is that investors are learning more about investment returns, risk, strategies, and the methodologies used by asset managers to obtain reported performance results. Cindy Kent discusses how the GIPS standards benefit investors by providing a universal set of guidelines that improves investment decision making.