The Pricing Team is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of PIMCO’s Pricing Policy which describes the procedures and responsibilities related to the valuing of securities and other assets held in client portfolios, including registered funds, private funds, and separate accounts. The Pricing Team’s primary responsibility is the daily pricing of all the different asset types that PIMCO trades, including fixed income products like corporate bonds, municipal bonds, CMOs, and ABS, as well as complex derivatives related to swaps, options, FX, equities. To fulfill this responsibility, the team performs pricing accuracy testing, vendor comparisons, anomaly detection, price move research, and risk control functions to ensure that PIMCO’s assets are priced accurately and timely. The team primarily utilizes data from pricing vendors, including ICE Data Services, Bloomberg (BVAL), PricingDirect (PDI), S&P Global (Markit), and LSEG Data & Analytics (Refinitiv), among others, and interacts closely with these vendors on pricing challenges/inquiries, market updates, and technical support.
The Pricing Team interacts with many different internal and external teams, having to respond to a high volume of inquiries, including communicating with PIMCO’s Portfolio Managers to gain market insights/color and to help resolve pricing discrepancies. Other teams include the Valuation Team on Alternative Assets, Legal/Compliance, Risk/Analytics/Performance teams, Account Managers, Auditors, Clients, Fund Treasury team, Custodian Banks/Fund Admins, Index/Benchmark team, Asset Set Up/Security Master, Due Diligence/Enterprise risk teams, our back office service provider, and Technology teams.
In addition to conducting its daily operations related to pricing, the Pricing Team regularly presents valuation matters to the Pricing Committee and related Sub-Committees, as well as presenting to the Valuation Oversight Committees related to PIMCO’s 40 Act Fund Boards.