DST has enhanced the position keeping element of its Anova post-trade data management, analytics and reporting suite to deliver a fully-fledged investment book of record (IBOR) designed to provide asset managers with near real-time visibility of positions and valuations.
Anova has included the capability to consume transactions and events, and provide continuously updated valuations and positions for some time, and some Anova users have taken-up this capability. Acknowledging increasing market discussion around IBOR, DST has now enhanced the capability and ring-fenced an IBOR product in the latest version of the Anova enterprise software suite, version 3.1. The IBOR is available immediately to existing users of Anova as part of the version 3.1 upgrade and at no additional cost, while new customers can license just the Anova IBOR module for use with other vendor systems or select the IBOR module as part of a wider Anova solution.
DST enhancements to the Anova software to deliver the IBOR module include support for multiple position states; the ability to forecast positions into the future using improved data analysis; and a wider capability for users to define views of positions and valuations they want to include in the IBOR.
Julian Webb, head of data management and analytics at DST Global Solutions, a subsidiary of DST, explains: “The demand for an IBOR is coming from Tier 1 asset managers with complex system architectures and multiple front-office order management systems. These asset managers need a single data repository and a continuously updated enterprise view of positions data. This means ease of integration is important, so we have added a flexible integration layer and open application programming interfaces so that connections can be built between the IBOR and different data sources. The platform is data agnostic, so data from different systems can be mapped and transferred to the Anova data model.”
The Anova IBOR is based on event-driven architecture to support consumption and publication of position data on a continuous, or near real-time, basis, although it can also be used on a file upload basis. Webb lists the drivers behind the development of an IBOR as risk and regulatory compliance, improved investment decision making and operational efficiency around position and transaction data.
He also notes firms’ increasing desire to move away from accounting systems as a means of creating an IBOR as using these systems as a prime source of position data means data is only updated on a daily basis . He explains: “Firms are trying to implement IBOR and update position data independently of accounting systems. They want an IBOR that is flexible and consumes data and updates position states in near real time.”
Webb acknowledges that many order management system vendors offer some form of IBOR and that vendors with front-to-back-office systems are also coming to market with IBOR solutions, but differentiates DST’s approach saying: “We came at this from a data perspective and are independent of order management and accounting systems. The Anova IBOR provides the ability to consume information from multiple systems to create a single view of position and valuation data. One instance of the IBOR and one single and complete view of positions across the enterprise.”
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