Specifications include, but are not limited to: A. Product Qualifications for Financial Institutions: ● The institution must be qualified to do business in the State of California and must be registered under the appropriate State and federal securities, insurance and banking laws. ● The proposed funds or investment products must be qualified to accept 457 plan investments. ● The institution must not have been involved in any litigation with or investigation by a federal or State security/insurance agency that could be deemed substantive by the City. This would include expropriation of funds, insider trading, front running, or undisclosed derivatives or leverage. ● The institution must not be a broker or any third party selling another company’s funds. ● The institution must not charge a redemption fee, transfer fee, deferred sales charge, or up-front sales load. In addition, the institution cannot apply or levy a penalty or fee of any type. ● All fees and expenses, if any, must be netted out of the credited rate. ● The institution must have experience with and be willing to accommodate daily valuation. ● The institution’s total assets must equal or exceed $50 billion. ● The institution’s total deposits must equal or exceed $35 billion. ● Each individual account must be insured through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or the National Credit Union Association (NCUA). ● Account balances in excess of FDIC or NCUA insurance must be collateralized pursuant to the Local Agency Security Program (LASP) [California Government Code Section 16610-16622, 16520-16533, and 53635-53652]. ● The institution must meet the capital requirements as mandated by FDIC or NCUA for “well capitalized”. ● The institution must have an “investment grade” rating from at least two nationally recognized statistical rating agencies. ● The proposed interest rate or reference rate must be indexed to a publicly available rate or benchmark. ● The institution must have sufficient deposit capacity to accept the proportionate number of deferrals into this option for the term of the contract. ● The institution must place no restrictions or fees on the Plan or participant’s ability to withdraw. B. Required Operational and Accounting Activities: ● The institution must be able to provide daily unit values/prices to the City’s TPA for purposes of recordkeeping and participant servicing in line with the TPA’s daily reporting deadline. ● The institution must provide the TPA with wire instructions to be used to make daily deposits and withdrawals. It is anticipated that the TPA will provide directions once daily, based on the prior day’s activity (T+1 processing). The institution must accept and process all deposits and withdrawals for plan-related transactions including contributions, investment election transfers, rollovers or transfers from other plans, benefit payments including loans and in-service withdrawals and required adjustments. ● The institution must wire all redeemed amounts requested by the TPA on the same day if instructions are received by your institution by 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. ● The institution must post incoming deposits promptly and accurately with same day crediting, if instructions are received by your institution by 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. ● The institution must provide written daily trade confirmation to the TPA. ● The institution must provide daily written confirmation and identification of transactions and a monthly statement of activity to the TPA. ● Applicable interest must be compounded daily. ● If participants are disadvantaged by a processing or pricing error committed by the institution, the institution must make the participants “whole” by crediting the participant’s account with any lost interest. ● The institution, and any subcontractors, must maintain financial and accounting records relating to the City and supporting evidence pertaining to the contract in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and other procedures specified by City. Finance and accounting records must be made available during normal business hours to the City, the California Attorney General, the State Controller, and the California Department of Finance (and/or any appropriate designees) during the contract period and any extension thereof, and for three (3) years from the date of expiration. Normal business hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., except holidays. ● Each institution must make available to City information and materials necessary to inform participants of the product.
