Rena Spencer is a senior manager in the Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) for the financial services industry. Rena has over twelve years of experience in the financial services industry serving both the asset management and banking and capital markets clients. Rena leads the FAAS FSO’s asset management practice and provides accounting and financial reporting services to senior finance executives such as CFOs and chief accounting officers at private equity, hedge funds and mutual fund clients, including business development companies (BDCs). Rena is also a member of the firm’s Volcker team and has been engaged in numerous discussions around Volcker’s general requirements and its impacts to banks (both regulatory and accounting/financial reporting), particularly as it relates to banks’ involvement with covered funds.
In addition, Rena also focuses on serving broader financial services companies planning for an IPO. Rena’s experiences include leading and successfully delivering on a variable interest model consolidation analysis of over 120 funds to assist with the planned IPO of one of the largest hedge funds in the U.S.
Contact information
Ernst & Young LLP
5 Times Square
New York, NY 10036
United States of America
Direct Tel: +1 212 773-1126
Mobile: +1 917 215 5571
Email: rena.spencer@ey.com
Education
- MBA from Columbia University
- BS from Boston University
Certifications
- CPA - New York and Illinois
- Member of the American Institute of CPA
- New York State Society of CPA
Skills
- Asset management and banking industry knowledge
- IPO readiness
- US regulatory requirements – banks (Volcker)
- Project management of large multinational, multi-disciplined engagements
- Processes and controls / remediation
- Technical accounting and reporting –US GAAP / IFRS
- Advanced knowledge of ASC 810 consolidation guidance
Background
Rena Spencer is a senior manager in the Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) for the financial services industry. Rena has over twelve years of experience in the financial services industry serving both the asset management and banking and capital markets clients.
Rena leads the FAAS FSO’s asset management practice and provides accounting and financial reporting services to senior finance executives such as CFOs and chief accounting officers at private equity, hedge funds and mutual fund clients, including business development companies (BDCs). Rena has managed numerous accounting advisory projects including a highly complex and challenging accounting / tax project for an asset management business of a large financial institution. She also has experience in assisting asset management clients on transformational projects such as treasury process re-design.
Rena is also a member of the firm’s Volcker team and has been engaged in numerous discussions around Volcker’s general requirements and its impacts to banks (both regulatory and accounting/financial reporting), particularly as it relates to banks’ involvement with covered funds.
In addition, Rena also focuses on serving broader financial services companies planning for an IPO. Rena’s experiences include leading and successfully delivering on a variable interest model consolidation analysis of over 120 funds to assist with the planned IPO of one of the largest hedge funds in the U.S.
Rena also serves a multitude of other clients such as external bankers and has considerable experience in providing accounting and financial reporting advice relating to consolidation and investment company guidance. She also has substantial experiences in other financial instruments topics such as derecognition, derivatives/hedging, foreign currency and fair value measurement under both US-GAAP and IFRS. She also has experiences in the reviews of mortgage, credit cards, auto loan securitizations in both the U.S. and South American markets and supported a US GAAP conversion project for a commercial bank in South America as part of the acquisition transaction consummated by one of the leading US corporation.
Rena often presents at both internal and external accounting point of view sessions. Prior to the current role, Rena was a senior manager resident in the Professional Practice Group for 3 years and closely monitored the standard setter activities (e.g., Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)) and wrote technical accounting publications for both internal and external distribution.
Rena began her career in the Banking and Capital Market segment of the firm’s Assurance Services practice in the New York Financial Services Office. During her years in audit, Rena played a key role in the SEC listing project for one of the largest global financial services firm headed by the EY Tokyo office. Concurrently, Rena led a team in the supervision, coordination and execution of a global financial services company’s Sarbanes-Oxley 404 project.