Market volatility, rising interest rates, and fee and margin compression are causing decision makers at asset management firms to call for improvements in data management to better inform investment decisions and address the needs of regulatory compliance, risk management and client engagement.
According to research commissioned by InterSystems, a data technology provider, the top data management challenge and top business driver for asset managers is eliminating errors. Some 54% of the 375 decision makers at asset management firms surveyed for the report said eliminating errors is their top data management challenge and 44% that it is their top business driver.
Other business drivers for improving data management include responding to requests from the business in a timelier manner, noted by 41% of asset managers; providing the front office with accurate data for making investment decisions, noted by 37%; and providing more timely reporting data for internal and external stakeholders, noted by 35%.Only 3% of respondents use data that is less than five hours old for reporting, 46% report that the data they use to make business decisions is more than 24 hours old, and 17% use data that is more than a week old. Some 66% of respondents require six to nine people to process data to meet the needs of business stakeholders, and 41% percent of firms report that their IT personnel spend between 26% to 50% of their time servicing data requests.
“This research confirms that the top data management challenges for asset management firms are around access to accurate, timely, and trusted data in order to eliminate errors, inform investment decisions, and better address compliance, risk management and client engagement needs,” says Joe Lichtenberg, global head of product and industry marketing at InterSystems. “To do this effectively, firms must minimise labour-intensive and error-prone manual processes that erode efficiency and create delays.”
The research surveyed 375 decision makers at asset management firms globally and was conducted by independent research firm Vitreous World. The full report, Data: A Competitive Differentiator, can be found here.
Subscribe to our newsletter
