In an environment of high fees for active management strategies and shifting regulatory requirements, many asset owners globally have chosen to manage their investments in-house in order to squeeze cost and process efficiencies out of the investment process, and to maintain greater control of it. Other asset owners are considering doing the same.
This worldwide trend toward managing assets in-house has been accompanied by a desire to pursue increasingly sophisticated investment strategies. Such strategies, however, often depend upon leveraging the leading edge of technology and expertise that might not exist on an in-house team. In short, in-house investment management teams can spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to keep up on the operational side, often at the cost of time spent on areas of the process where they truly add value – investment management, preservation of capital, and driving returns.
“You can build an infrastructure and an operating model for your current state, but as the world continues to evolve and different asset classes become attractive, you may or may not have the intellectual capital or technology capability for new investment strategies,” says Dan Houlihan, a contributor to a新白皮书改变asset owner model，和Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Servicing Americas, at Northern Trust.
用于有效操作模型的构建块
Which are the most important priorities for investment operations? And even if investment decision-making is done in-house, must the operational aspects be as well? Houlihan cites three essential pillars for constructing the operational side of what can be viewed as the new asset owner model: governance, talent, and technology.
“首先，需要提出治理，以符合目标的投资策略执行。哈林邦说，涉及明确的角色和责任，以及职责分离。良好的治理还要求明确的战略目标和强大的风险管理框架。此外，资产业主应严格评估自己在不断行使自我审查中，就像他们与经理外部一样。他们可能会问他们是否与外部经理做得更好。他们的基准和性能指标是什么？他们如何监视，衡量和报告其方法和风险管理？最终，当你到达它时，如果他们没有相信他们正在投资价值，他们会把自己作为经理焚烧？
Secondly, the operating structure must be underpinned by the right people and talent. This can be a burden in a constantly shifting investment environment, particularly when relationships, communication, and the service ethos of those involved is integral to the model. Houlihan explains the core philosophy behind the holistic operational solutions offered by Northern Trust “is to be an extension of our client’s business. Whether for trading or middle-office functions, we engage with our clients face-to-face as much as practicable. We are committed to establishing relationships with dedicated, named individuals, such as between traders and portfolio managers.”
The third piece is to identify the underlying technologies needed. “They may be for activities like performance measurement, order management, portfolio accounting or data management, or the implementation of all these functions,” says Houlihan. He compares those in-house technology requirements with an outsourced operations solution: “The time to market and the upfront capital would logically be longer term and more expensive in-house.”
灵活性的额外强度
与运营服务提供商合作的另一个好处是，内部投资团队充满了敏捷性，以在任何管辖区或任何资产类别中执行更快的速度。“这是资产所有者在评估其运作模式时考虑的主要决策点，”Houlihan说。
除了灵活性外，还有必要的运营效率来实现对投资策略及其基础证券的更大控制 - 在内部投资队的主要原因。这些效率通常在最需要的情况下访问数据，并以定制的，有用的形式提供和接收它。
至于成本效率，虽然资产所有者显然希望减少与技术和监管支出相关的总长期支出，但“可能难以预测新的固定成本可能超过三到五年。这就是北方信任可以帮助客户在运营需求上做出决策的地方，“Houlihan说。
复杂的基础设施需要为无数的日常流程支持一个典型的资产课程。“我们对我们的战略核心核心，特别是在资产业主上，以确保我们在价值链上下和下降的能力，”Houlihan说。他认为价值链，从返回前台办公室，建议运营问题的例子。后台托管通常仍然外包。然后提供资金会计和投资者服务，其次是中间办事处。
前台外包的趋势最近获得了Steam。例如，外包整个交易职能存在迅速的新兴趋势，而不仅仅是交易的执行。北方信托的综合交易解决方案（其）可以允许资产所有者向他们移动交易。它可以与Omnium的一份投资书相结合，这是一个适合公共证券和衍生品的平台。
北方信托also recently launched前台解决方案, a front and middle office capability for complex, multi-asset portfolios. The product amalgamates investment data and customer relationship management with a sophisticated analytics pack that provides dashboards at the CIO level.
“We’ve created an unprecedented solution that incorporates what is typically today done in four or five different systems into one,” says Houlihan. “Asset owners that are managing their assets in-house typically have a data management solution, a research management solution, and a performance and analytics solution. We’ve packaged that all into one, with the differentiator that we’re not only providing the technology, but also the service wrapper around it to support and maintain the data on a monthly basis. As a result, the CIO has very clean data, but also has a set of tools to be able to evaluate it in a way that’s useful to make decisions.”
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