M&G Investments (M&G), one of Europe’s leading investment managers with £200 billion of assets under management, completed an upgrade to GoldenSource EDM version 8 in May 2011. Along with the upgrade, M&G extended GoldenSource’s enterprise data management (EDM) platform to utilize the derivatives capabilities, doubling instrument volumes and delivering trusted, consistent information to power key M&G front office systems. These systems include Algorithmics for risk, Fidessa LatentZero for trading and compliance, and thinkFolio for portfolio management.
“GoldenSource EDM is a core piece of our infrastructure, providing us with quality data in addition to audit and governance process support backed by enterprise-class power,” says Alan Towndrow, Group IS Director, M&G Investments. “New regulatory directives, such as Solvency II, require firms such as ours to produce increasingly granular information to support risk management and capital adequacy practices. Having access to quality data enables us to pre-empt regulatory demands and ensure our systems are ready for any additional changes.”
“M&G remains a pioneer in the field of EDM. Its drivers for the investment into this upgrade reaffirm its original strategy and echo market trends we are seeing globally,” says Neill Vanlint, managing director of client operations, GoldenSource. “Front, back and middle office systems need to have a consistent view of data and furthermore it must be of a quality they can trust and a provenance they can evidence to clients and regulators alike.”
Hugh Griffiths, senior consultant, Cutter Associates, says, “Solvency II has been a hidden problem for asset managers. Their insurance clients are, and will do so increasingly, demanding more data – provided to a greater, more granular level of detail and to be provided more frequently and quicker than today. At the very least, a stronger set of data governance and provision processes is required. And, in many cases we are aware that improved data management systems are being implemented to address this need. The recent delays to the full implementation of Solvency II will provide extra time for asset managers to meet their client needs in this area.”
M&G first purchased GoldenSource EDM in 2003 as a central security master to normalize, enrich, and cleanse instrument reference data in a single golden copy to support its fixed income compliance and order management implementation.
