Supporting Clients’ Evolving Needs through Technology
As investment managers become more comfortable with making use of new technology, firms in the financial services industry are now reaching out to providers of fintech platforms, services and infrastructure for supporting in sustaining their operating model. They also understand both the need to be more agile and the role technology plays in making this happen.
“We’ve seen significant growth in the complexity of asset classes we are being asked to service, such as fund of funds, bank loans and private equity. Each of these esoteric asset classes has its own nuances and, we have developed the technology to fully automate their processing. We aim to ensure that when firms come to us, the solution can be readily tailored to support their particular portfolio,” comments Robert Longden, Senior Vice President at Arcesium.
Beyond enterprise data management and post-trade processing, there has been a significant uptick in the variety of use cases for the Arcesium technology. For example, one complex asset manager is using Arcesium’s technology to support their firm-wide cash processing. Longden explains how this came about: “It’s a targeted, point solution which sees us managing with the review and approvals process, managing SSIs, automatically instructing cash movements, and more. This was not necessarily a pre-defined product. Rather, it is evidence of the adaptability of the technology and the ingenuity of our team to solve the problems our clients are facing.”
In Longden’s experience, investment managers have started to focus more on data integrity and data quality when looking to automate processes and engaging with technology. He notes: “The types of firms that fall into the Arcesium client profile tend to be complex organisations. These firms are often dealing with multiple order management systems, various market data feeds for securities terms and conditions, prices and corporate actions, and multiple touch points with counterparties and other third parties. They also require downstream feeds into reporting solutions, data warehouses, and risk systems.”
“Each of those systems requires the data to be accurate. Arcesium excels at building the tooling around all of those touch points to ensure the data is of high quality, and to
guarantee a high level of integrity. This has always been a concern, but is clearly top-of-mind for clients when evaluating technology solutions.”
Another development Longden observes is the appeal for managers to have full access to underlying data and complete transparency: “The clients’ complete accessibility to their underlying data in the Arcesium technology is something which gives firms a lot of comfort. Clients are trending toward prioritising data ownership and accessibility, which is not always a given with third-party solutions.”
Although the pandemic has been a source of much chaos, it has supported the case for outsourcing. Attitudes are shifting, and this period has proven that working with a remote
team is possible and can be highly effective. Longden outlines: “We’re delivering the outsourced offering of our financial operations services alongside the technology itself. This
means all the work – the data management, the oversight, and the escalations – is something we deliver with full transparency to the client. This provides additional peace of mind.”
Clients often come to Arcesium having realised the limitations with their legacy systems: “We can help them set up their infrastructure to be nimble enough to trade new asset classes or incorporate new strategies, as and when required by their portfolio managers and traders,” says Longden.
Arcesium’s Bob Longden and David Nable were interviewed for an article and video in the December 2020 issue of Hedgeweek after Arcesium was named Best Data Management Solution at the Hedgeweek Americas Awards 2020. The December 2020 issue was released as the US Service Provider Insights 2020 special report.
