The number of institutional investors that have stopped conducting in-person due diligence of money managers and other service providers in response to COVID-19 fears rose sharply to 88%, results of a survey Wednesday by the Investment Management Due Diligence Association showed.
Less than two weeks ago, just 29% of due-diligence officers working for asset owners said they had canceled face-to-face meetings in response to a March 6 IMDDA poll.
The most recent poll attracted responses from 636 due-diligence professionals, while the previous poll was based on answers from 672 people, said Daniel A. Strachman, IMDDA's co-founder and managing director.
In response to Wednesday's survey, the percentage of respondents who said the COVID-19 crisis had not affected their institutions' due diligence fell to 9% compared to 52% in the earlier survey.
The number of asset owners that previously didn't conduct due diligence of service providers declined to 3% from 19% in the prior survey.
