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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
Table of Contents
Introduction An over view of outsourcing What led to the idea of MO outsourcing? Key considerations Current outsourcing models A few decision makers for Asset Managers to outsource in MO A few significant challenges in client onboarding in MO outsourcing Where Hexaware can help in the MO outsourcing process E2E Conversion- Where Hexaware can help Service providers Conclusion 03 03 04 04 05 05 05 06 06 08
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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
Front Office
Marketing, Researh, Portfolio Management, Trading
Middle Office
Transaction Management, Record Keeping, Data Management. PnA, Client Billing, Client Reporting, Recon, Corporate Actions
Back Office
Fund Administration, Fund Accounting, Transfer Agency, Custody, Clearing & Settlement
1 Introduction
Shifting markets, profit pressures and the ever-present demand for better returns are driving more and more investment managers to consider outsourcing their investment operations. In the last few years the middle office outsourcing has been looked at seriously by Asset Managers while evaluating their current business models and core competencies. Primarily the role of an asset manager is to maximize returns on the investments for their clients, given the extremely competitive environment in the investment world and clients increasingly looking at Asset Managers to help them in these turbulent and violent economic swings that we have been seeing in the last few years. Post the 2008 financial crisis that gripped the world, the concept of Middle office outsourcing has been gaining popularity in the Asset Management world, more because of operating compulsions and the need for the Asset Managers to be lean and focus more on their core competency of Investment Management. When used effectively, middleoffice Outsourcing can bring about additional efficiencies, savings and provide more predictable costing. Choosing the right suite of the middle office outsourcing services can help Investment Managers focus on the critical front office services while leaving the running of their costly middle office functions to the service providers. While the back office services have been outsourced to Custodians (Third Party) for the last several years, the acceptance level in the middle office services by third party is slowly gaining ground and currently it could probably be 20% of the current market size, whereas the back office outsourcing would be in the region of 90%. What this means is the potential in the middle office services that could grow in the coming years and with the major players in this space BNYM, State Street, JPMC & Citi Group increasingly spending and upgrading their platforms to offer a wide range of middle office services. It is to be noted that all the above mentioned players are large Custodians and for them to bring in the middle office services along with their current stable back office service offerings will only add a seamless integration of the services for Asset Managers.
Source 2011 WFE market highlights - http://www.world-exchanges.org The global financial markets from the early 2000s have been growing across a number of sectors in both the developed and emerging markets. As shown in the figure above the world market capitalization has grown from US $ 30 Trillion, peaking to US $ 60 Trillion in 2007 and ending 2011 at US $ 47 Trillion. Supported by technology and processing, the trading volumes have increased tremendously and in addition to the market increases
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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
the number of global counterparties and also the use of alternative assets became mainstream as the institutional investors increased the portfolio allocations to the Hedge funds and private equities. With the current trend of Asset Managers operating on a global scale and increased product offerings, fund managers have to deal with investment strategies keeping in mind the various suite of applications from a technology perspective spread across geographies and serving specific regions, these systems had been built for specific country trading, different reporting requirements, different currencies, different asset classes. All this posed multiple challenges for asset managers. Integrations and mergers seen across the Asset Management world focused more on the consolidation of brand names and leaving the processing to multiple and disparate platforms. All this led to high costs and also inefficiencies in data delivery and performance. By the beginning of 2000, it became apparent that the success of Investment Managers would be measured not just by the assets under management but also how efficiently they streamline the operational delivery from the Front Office to the Middle and the Back Offices. This led to the Middle Office space giving the biggest scope for improvement.
4 Key considerations:
Asset Managers while considering outsourcing the MO operations, should look into the following criterias: With your transportation mission and promise in place, examine each aspect of your operation as listed below for selection of initiatives Will the service provider be a partner to them? Low fees alone should not be reason for a decision Short term savings should not be a decisive factor, but a look at the firms long term gains and needs to be factored in. How accurate will be the data provided by the service provider? How fast will the service provider be, in providing the services Will be service provider be able to service all the asset classes? Will be service provider be able to service globally? Will the front office receive all data accurately to make investment decisions? Will the service provider be able to provide customized solutions? E.g Reporting? What will be the impact of BAU during transitions/ conversions? What will be the impact of the existing teams with the Asset Manager?
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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
Conversions:
No movement of staff or systems to the service provider world and all services and business moved to the providers platforms. This model has gained popularity due to the decreased time to execute and in some cases conversions completing in a years time, though the provider will have invest significant upfront time and material in the areas of due diligence well ahead of the executions.
Component based:
A recent trend in MO outsourcing, where asset managers do not move their entire space, but certain areas eg- performance analytics, record keeping etc. where the asset manager thinks could add value in terms of quality and cost. This model gives the flexibility of making the outsourcing process in stages. A good model for smaller asset management players. More standardization of service offerings by the provider, thereby eliminating the need for customization as is often seen, when servicing larger asset managers.
Initiative three
Initiative Four
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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
Need for a better understanding of data lineage/ flows through architecture Need for more comprehensive test data in Tech testing phases Need for more domain knowledge within Tech and more staff with end-2-end knowledge of architecture and business Disparate locations of Technology, Operating and Product teams hampered communication, learning and knowledge sharing Too many handoffs between AD teams and a need for better ownership of key interfaces
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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
Areas where Hexaware can offer services in the MO outsourcing conversion process Requirement Analysis: Interface Mapping
Format & layout Mapping of data structure and formats Data requirements: Data enrichment / transformation and data field omission Delivery channel: Mapping of delivery channel for each data source
Transaction Data
Trades Positions Cash Balances Fund Flows (Subscriptions / Redemptions) Collaterals & Margin Expenses Corporate Actions ( Dividends, Income, Maturities, Splits. M&A etc)
Data Dictionary mapping Data set sequences & dependencies Data enrichment / transformation, data validation and reconciliation exception resolution Post Migration Data building (Rolled up Summary information)
Historical Data
Trades / Cash Transactions/Corporate Actions Positions Taxiots Investor Register Accounting Data ( Journal Entries, GL/ SL Data, Trial balances, balance Sheets) Static & Reference Data
Dynamic Data
Unsettled trades Open Cash / FX Transactions Open Corporate Actions Corporate Action entitlements (post Ex-data) OTC transactions
Pre-Conversion: Configuration & Data Set-up Application Customization & Enhancements Application & System Settings Static & Reference Data Fund Set-up
Transaction Data
Brokers, Custodians & Counterparties SMF Data Cash Accounts Setup Capital Account, income Account, Margin Account Fund and Cash Account Linkages Country and Currency Setup, Tax Tables, Holiday Schedules Base rates and foreign exchange rates Custodian Deadlines, etc
Testing Data Comparison / validation Data Quality Testing Interface / Integration Functional Testing Business Process Testing
Fund Setup
Base Currency, Transaction Currency Accounting periods & Reporting Cycle Accounting parameters and rules Chart of Accounts Price source for various instrument types Taxiot selections of the fund ( Average LIFO, FIFO, Maximize/ Minimize Gain/ Loss, Specific lot) Fund groups and blotters based on requirements Fund-Custodian linkages
Parallel Run
Setting of baseline conversion data until prior period Posting of transactions Running batch cycle for accounting Validation and reconciliation with existing client system
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Whitepaper
Middle Office Outsourcing in the Investment Management World
10 Conclusion:
As mentioned earlier in this document, over 90% of back office operations have been outsourced to the Custodian world, with the middle office areas still at 20%, thereby suggesting of increasing business opportunities shifting to the Custody world over this decade which brings to an interesting find that technology spend by the Asset Managers will be less in the MO and BO areas in the coming years, with the Custody world taking the larger role and opportunities. Does this trend make a compelling idea/ strategy for IT providers like Hexaware to focus and partner more in the areas of IT and operations with the Custodians, than with the Asset Managers on a business and revenue growth? Yes, it makes more business sense.
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