Middle-office operations for asset managers
We partner with asset managers, wealth managers and hedge funds to help them run robust, cost-effective and stable middle-office operations and create “operational alpha”.
The biggest challenges facing most middle-office operations teams post-pandemic are employee attrition and finding top talent to replace them. The increasing number of innovative and complex/alternative asset-class investment strategies amid growing data management issues has only complicated the situation and diverted management focus.
At Acuity, we strategically partner with our clients to work as an extension of their teams. Our ability to hire, train and retain top finance talent remains our main differentiating factor. Our firm’s capital markets research heritage has helped us understand and manage requirements of middle-office operations teams and enhanced our middle office services. Our ability to run cost-effective and stable middle-office operations has enabled our clients to achieve their operational alpha goals.
Our experienced analysts provide support on several fund accounting and shadow accounting activities, such as trade processing, reconciliations, corporate actions, pricing/valuation and NAV calculations, for simple securities to complex structured products across global markets. We also provide support on capital activity, administrative tasks (including invoicing support), investment management regulatory reporting and portfolio management.
Middle and Back office operations support with wide asset class coverage such as Equity and Fixed Income (Public/Private Equity, Bonds, Public/Private Credit and SPACs), Derivatives (Options, Swaps, Forwards and Futures) and Loans (CLO, CMBS/CRE, Unsecured loans, ABS/MBS, Project Finance and RMBS)
Middle Office Operations Services - Benefits and Impact
Build an “attrition-proof” middle-office offshore operational model
Set up scalable middle-office teams that move in line with AuM
Ability to manage BAU operations while onshore client team focuses on priority tasks
A “follow the sun” model that helps complete all critical trade tasks before markets open
Portfolio operations support – selected capabilities
Fund accounting support
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- Transaction/trade processing
Trade confirmation
Identifying and fixing trade failures
Manual booking of complex trades
Counterparty confirmation
Cash flow monitoring
Liquidity management
- Reconciliation
Reconciliation of cash and positions
Reconciliation of custody/broker/trustee vs fund admin books
Automated and manual reconciliation
Clearing breaks in a timely manner
Report publication
- Corporate actions and reference data
Creating and maintaining security and event databases/security master functions
Corporate action feed monitoring
Comparing data against data sources for accuracy
Corporate action processing on tools
Modelling securities not supported by the platform
- Valuations/pricing
Ensuring 100% price availability
Comparing data from different data sources for accuracy
Identifying price inconsistencies, justifying price jumps/stale prices, etc.
Manually updating prices of OTC products
Producing reports in line withprice volatility
- NAV calculation
Recording capital flow received from transfer agency
Recording accruals and income from treasury team
Integrating price/corporate action feed and checking O/S breaks
Computing fees (performance, management fees, etc.) and invoicing
Calculating/generating NAV packs and IRR
Capital activity
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Client onboarding and bookkeeping
Subscription and redemption processing
Dividend reinvestment
Switching (within the same AMC)
Admin support
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Invoice database management
Cash confirmation from liquidity teams. external vendor coordination for fee payment and client servicing
Managing collateral, margin, cash, income and expenses of the fund
MIS reporting
Investment management regulatory reporting
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Form PF reports
AIFMD reports
Final terms
PRIPS, KIIDs, etc.
Portfolio management
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Performance measurement
Attribution
Risk reporting
Investment reporting
Data aggregation and validation
Experience with third-party platforms
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FIS VPM
FactSet
MSCI Barra
SunGard FIS
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SEI ARCHWAY
FIS INVESTRAN
TLM
Aladdin (by BlackRock)
GENEVA
PORT
ALLVUE
Bloomberg
WSO
Global Portfolio
What we have done
Corporate actions: Timely processing of events for fixed income investments
What we are proud of
Top 20
US-based asset manager
40%
operational cost savings
Break reconciliation and resolution across CLOs and SMAs
What we are proud of
50,000
priority accounting breaks resolved
40%
client bandwidth saving
Client services support to a CLO corporate trust
What we are proud of
USD2tn+
in AuM; the world’s largest custodian bank, based in the US
2,000
backlog cleared for cash reconciliation breaks
Trade confirmation and reconciliation support to a US-based hedge fund
What we are proud of
USD800m+
in AuM
3x
faster turnaround time
Shadow accounting (open-ended funds, CLOs, SMAs, hedge funds) support to Europe-based alternative investment manager
What we are proud of
30%
operational cost savings
40%
client bandwidth saving
Investment pricing, reconciliation and risk support to a US-based private equity firm
What we are proud of
20%
reduced turnaround time
100%
process compliance
Corporate actions, CLOs and trade operations support to a US-based public fixed income asset manager
What we are proud of
99.8%
data accuracy
4x
increase in client-facing time
Shadow accounting (direct lending, CLOs, hedge funds, liquidity) support to a Europe-based credit and private debt manager
What we are proud of
40%+
annualised operational cost savings
5x
increase in client interactions
Pricing and loan valuation support to a leading US-based investment management firm
What we are proud of
40%+
annualised operational cost savings
SPOC for pricing to different pricing vendors
Trade confirmation and reconciliation support to a leading US-based hedge fund
What we are proud of
40%+
annualised operational cost savings
Time-difference advantage resulted in faster trade settlement
Fund accounting support to a US-based exchange-traded product (ETP) provider
What we are proud of
300%
increase in product coverage
50%
faster turnaround in NAVs released through our streamlined process
Our perspective on Middle-office operations for asset managers
Blog
Embracing efficiency: The shift to T+1 settlements in US financial markets
On 28 May 2024, the US, ..... Read More
March 12, 2024
October 4, 2023
ColGlobal inancial crisis , Collateralized loan obligation , Credit Ratings
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