4 challenges facing the asset management industry
The asset management industry entered 2020 with a great deal of optimism. Sadly, the trials and tribulations of this year will have impacted this perspective. Despite this, the smartest firms will continue to invest in their people and technology and attempt to do better than just trying to keep business as usual ticking over. We are already seeing a marked difference between firms that are struggling to maintain their pre-COVID status quo, and those who have forged ahead to attack the challenges 2020 offers head on. What are the challenges? Here, we will explore the four most pressing challenges facing the asset management industry, and provide specific [...]
Understanding the importance of data quality metrics
When your business invests in an effective enterprise data management (EDM) solution, you will gain a core advantage of holding your critical data in one manageable location. In a time where the vast quantity of data typically found in asset management firms, these systems are becoming more critical than ever. However, to truly harness that data and use it to guide meaningful decisions within your organisation, you need a clear idea of its quality. Poor data quality can lead to significant issues if it is used to guide a company's direction. If it is outdated, inaccurate, ambiguous or incomplete, this can subsequently result in wayward strategies, as well [...]
Understanding the value of a business case
Today's businesses are driven by data. The vast amount of data that companies generate and amass on a day-to-day basis is at the heart of unlocking new opportunities, developing their processes and fulfilling their true potential. However, this is typically only true for organisations who have gotten to grips with data governance. It is one thing to create and collect data – it is another thing entirely to truly own, understand and utilise it. Consider your own company for a moment – do you have answers to the following? What does the data we've collected actually mean? Can I trust our data? Where did our data come [...]
The 7 essential steps to building a business case
In my experience, the biggest hurdle to overcome when introducing a new data initiative is found right near the beginning – getting executive buy-in. While data is the driving force behind the development of businesses in many industries, especially within the financial services sector, setting an initiative in motion that's designed to capture, store and govern this information can be a real challenge. That's because any effective data initiative needs to present business-wide benefits, not just be contained to a single department. Without a holistic approach, you risk the rest of your organisation ignoring this new source of data, rendering it ineffective in the grand scheme of [...]
Software Dilemmas – The Buy vs Build Debate
By Simon Swords, Managing Director It's a question that many individuals are confronted with at some point in their career: "Should we buy this software solution, or are we better off building our own?" As the MD of a software company myself, I understand this dilemma very well. When you have the in-house skills and resources to develop your own bespoke solution to a problem, there will be a strong desire to go this route for reasons that include: You won't be required to pay an annual fee to another company for the solution You wouldn't become dependent on the supplier of said solution You will have [...]
Data Quality Challenges: What They are and How to Overcome Them
Data makes the world go around, there’s no doubt about it – and with increasing innovation and automation shaping our day-to-day, it’s possible to collect and store more information than before, making access to data easier than ever. However, ensuring enterprise data quality proves to be a consequential hurdle for many companies, with a lengthy list of reasons causing businesses to struggle with the soundness of their data. For example: Some companies encounter data inconsistencies across different departments. Others find that the raw data that flows into their data supply chain, both internally and externally, poses the very real threat to create data quality issues along with a lack of standardisation. [...]
Self-service data governance – optimising how businesses handle data
Big data. Data management. Data quality. Data governance. These formerly big buzzwords on the data scene have gradually become staples of business vocabulary. But just because they have less hype surrounding them doesn't mean they're any less important. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Data is the driver behind critical business decisions - decisions that support the profitability and growth regardless of their size or industry. Whether it's the way banks track the spending and borrowing habits of customers to personalise communications with customers, or people in the insurance sector use data to eliminate inefficiencies and make savings through shorter claim cycles. And, as the availability and [...]
3 Essential Elements to Successful Data Governance
Data management is at the crux of modern businesses. It is the information that sits at the heart of decisions that will propel a company forward, and unlocks opportunities that could otherwise be overlooked. Yet, despite how crucial data is to ensuring growth in today's landscape, data mismanagement remains a significant concern. Actually, it isn't hard to see why - with the sheer volume of data being created, stored and shared on a day-to-day basis, it is easy to understand how keeping this information under control remains problematic. But just because it's problematic doesn't mean companies can sweep it under the rug. Data mismanagement doesn't only prevent [...]
Addressing the Issue of Data Mismanagement
The evolution of technologies and solutions dedicated to making the handling of data more efficient, more secure and more dependable has been pivotal in helping companies confidently make data-driven strategic decisions. Thanks to this, organisations that juggle a lot of data day-to-day, such as those working in the asset management industry, can feel more confident about the validity of the information they have available and its capacity to make a real difference moving forward. However, the threat of data mismanagement still holds firm in today's landscape. With such a swell of data being stored within modern workplaces, mistakes are likely to happen if effective precautions are taken. [...]
Eye of the TIGRR: what’s next for financial services regulations in the UK?
Whether you think it's a catastrophe or the best decision the country has ever made, Brexit has happened. And with the UK now no longer obliged to follow EU rules, the government is keen to make wide-ranging regulatory reforms. To this end, in February 2021, the Prime Minister appointed TIGRR — the Task Force on Innovation, Growth, and Regulatory Reform — to look at how the UK could be less bureaucratic, foster innovation, and increase competitiveness. The ensuing 130-page report is packed with ambitious and far-reaching proposals which the authors believe will: '...drive innovation and accelerate the commercialisation and safe adoption of new technologies... reduce barriers to [...]
The future of intelligent machines and investment management
Technology will continue to play a critical role as the challenges facing the financial industry intensify. Such challenges may include but are not limited to, volatile capital market returns and margin compression. Those embracing innovative technology will be better placed and more capable of adapting to changes thus enabling rapid business transformation as well as maximising efficiency and value creation. Thus far, Intelligent Machines have been predominantly used by Asset Management firms to boost operational efficiencies. So, where have we seen the adoption of Intelligent Machines in investment management? Identifying trends and patterns to support sales and distribution, product pricing, trade allocation, portfolio construction and analytics Streamlining [...]
9 ESSENTIALS to gain a competitive advantage for your Wealth Management Firm
According to a cross-industry research by Accenture, over 80% of Asset Management companies don’t have enterprise-wide Master Data Management (MDM). Half of the respondents didn’t even regularly assess and update their data governance process definitions. So what is Master Data Management? MDM empowers Asset Managers to link all critical business data to a single point of reference. This reduces errors while ensuring business processes are not made redundant. It is the core process used to manage, centralise, organise, categorise, localise, synchronise and enrich master data while adhering to business rules. Why is MDM so important for the AM industry? Implementing MDM, and thus the ability to change [...]
8 pain points manual reconciliation brings to the table
In seeking to meet and overcome the challenges Investment Managers face in the wake of soaring trade volumes, increasingly complex transactions, and mounting pressure for faster reconciliation, firms today face an unprecedented level of hardship but also a myriad of opportunities. One of the greatest challenges Asset Managers must overcome is their capacity to meet the growing market demand for accurate and fast data reconciliation, regardless of volume levels. Efficient scaling has become impossible with existing manual processes. Here are 8 potential pitfalls of manual reconciliation that can hold your business back: Higher operational risk from unmatched data items Account errors that mislead Portfolio Managers, particularly regarding [...]
Summary of the FCA’s 2021/22 Business Plan and what it means for asset managers
The Financial Conduct Authority has been publishing its annual business plan for close to a decade. But this year's plan, published on 15 July 2021 — three months later than usual — is radically different to its predecessors. The first plan under new CEO Nikhil Rathi, sets out a broad and ambitious vision for the financial services industry's Covid-19 recovery and the future of regulation in the UK. In order to achieve that vision, the FCA plans to implement sweeping changes to how it operates, how it engages with the businesses it regulates, and what it expects from those businesses moving forward. Here's a look at the [...]
How the global pandemic affected individual investors…
NATIXIS, an asset management firm ranked among the world’s largest, surveyed 8,550 individual investors with $100,000+ investable assets globally across 24 countries in March and April 2021. The study sought to understand how the global pandemic had affected individual investors’ finances and emotions in the past year. Their findings revealed that: About 1 in 10 experienced the loss of their job or business for at least part of 2020 More than 20% reported the loss of household income About the same number said they were forced to withdraw from their savings accounts and other assets 1/5 said they had experienced a setback to their financial security. Despite [...]
Fundipedia and Opus Nebula integrate their SaaS solutions to provide a seamless data management and fund reporting solution
November 2021: Fundipedia and Opus Nebula have integrated their cloud-based SaaS solutions to provide a turnkey solution for fund data management and fund reporting for investment houses, wealth managers and asset servicers. The initial integration was undertaken to provide an automated end-to-end solution for a UK based independent investment management house dedicated to providing a high-quality and efficient service for private clients, charities and institutions. The investment house was struggling with a lack of a formal data structure, data controls and data accuracy, with an over-reliance on spreadsheets. In addition, the resulting fund reports, fund factsheets, KIIDs and other Regulatory required reports were labour intensive and slow [...]
5 Competitive Boosters of an Automated Reconciliation System
Reconciliation is often overlooked and undervalued by firms. Done right, reconciliation can help you avoid regulatory risks, make informed decisions, and ultimately reduce costs. Unfortunately, reconciliation at many firms remains a laborious, time-consuming and risk-prone process relying heavily on spreadsheets and manual labor. This approach is not only inefficient but also fundamentally unsustainable in the long run. Planning well ahead, and considering automating your data reconciliation process early on, could be the competitive edge your firm has been seeking. Here are 5 competitive advantages to consider when deciding whether automated reconciliation is the right choice for you: 1. Informed investment decisions Asset managers are increasingly demanding further [...]
PRIIP KIDs are a go: what happens now?
At last, it's happening. Two years since consultations started — and over three years since the PRIIP regulation came into force — the European Commission has agreed a final version of the PRIIP key information document (KID). The asset management industry was never keen on the PRIIP KID requirements. And, given that it now has less than a year to make sense of a delegated act and 46 pages' worth of amendments to complex technical standards, it's safe to say not many people will change their minds. That said, regardless of your views on the matter, the new rules are coming into force from 1 July 2022. [...]
Is SFDR simply recoloring old businesses with new names?
At the beginning of August 2021, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a milestone assessment that drew an “unequivocal” link between human activity and global warming. The Secretary-General of the UN made it clear that the conclusions of the report mean one thing...“code red for humanity.” Meanwhile, money managers are “flooded with cash” chasing ethical causes. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, in just four years the global market for ESG investing is set to exceed $50 trillion - more than 1/3 of global AUM. The question is how much of this is simply “greenwashing”? In spite of being ahead of the curve when implementing regulations [...]
5 ways your Asset Management firm will stay ahead of the game with AI and ML
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine learning (ML) may seem both a distant and even scary prospect to some, straight out of a sci-fi movie plot, but in reality they’ve been around in our lives for quite some time now. Think Siri or Cortana, for example. A growing number of financial institutions are applying AI to their businesses via the back office and customer advice interactions to name just a couple. And, according to a report from the last World Economic Forum, 76% of banking CXOs agree that adopting AI will be critical to their organisation’s ability to differentiate in the market. Yet, the Asset Management industry seems [...]
A good run of bad luck: what does asset managers’ 2020 performance tell us about the industry’s future?
It's the year most industries reached never-before-seen lows, the world economy suffered the worst downward spiral since World War II, and things took such a left-field turn 'unprecedented' became the word of the year. Yet, against all odds, asset managers ended 2020 on a high. Despite the turbulent economic climate, total assets under management grew by 10% in Europe and 11% globally compared to 2019. But while this (and other numbers we'll get to in a bit) make it look like the industry is as strong as it's ever been, things aren't as positive as they seem at first glance. Here's what went well and what didn't [...]
Release – version 1.4.6
Release - version 1.4.6 Change events Update to the change events system which will allow Fundipedia field data to be automatically changed based on other field value changes and rules you configure. See our change events help articles for more information. Enhancements to variations New combined view and edit all options available on form layouts. An administrator can configure which variation is displayed by default. The order that variations appear can now be changed by a system user. New Country variation extension has been added which appends the country ISO country code to the field name You can now make a variation extension inactive but still report on [...]
Release – version 1.4.5
Release - version 1.4.5 Reporting standards Users now have the ability to give fields extra headers and formats when building reports, e.g. for reporting in openfunds format. See our reporting in different standards blog post for more information. New 7 decimal place data type is now available Single Sign-on authentication with Azure AD Field information tooltip now available via field label click, not hover. This now allows you to copy and paste information from the tooltip.
Data Reporting in Different Standards
Today we are pleased to announce an exciting new feature to Fundipedia; reporting standards. Timely and accurate regulatory reporting is a critical need for any financial institution. With the introduction of consortiums, such as, Openfunds and European Working Group (EWG), asset management reporting has started to become more standardised. However, many financial institutions still struggle to pull this data together. It can often involve time consuming manual processes and a massive burden on resource every month, quarter, and year-end. Incomplete, ambiguous or erroneous fund data can have serious negative consequences for financial institutions. The financial costs of these errors can be substantial. The new Fundipedia reporting standards [...]
Introducing Azure Single Sign-on (SSO)
Today we are excited to announce the launch of Azure Single Sign-on (SSO) with Fundipedia. With the growing rise in cybercrime, security has never been so important. The average person has over 30 logins, all requiring a password—these passwords are often reused, shared or become less and less complex as the number of passwords you need to remember grows. SSO can relieve the stress of password management as well as offering a host of other benefits for end users and IT managers. What is SSO? Single Sign-on (SSO) is a system that enables users to securely authenticate with multiple applications and websites by logging in only once, [...]