P1

Asset Managers

Providing integrated solutions for asset managers across asset classes and business functions

Asset Managers

We provide asset managers and private wealth managers integrated solutions across asset classes and functions to improve investment performance, enhance client servicing, attract new client assets and retain assets in the existing complex business environment.

In addition, we help cut costs. Serving as an extended arm of asset and private wealth managers, we carry out all regular and critical functions (such as research, fund marketing, compliance, and portfolio monitoring and index operations) diligently irrespective of spikes in investment activity.

Asset Managers – Support We Offer

  • Portfolio Research and Operations

    Our ‘Portfolio Research and Operations practice provides support to a number of asset managers on activities across the portfolio management value chain, including the following:


    • Performance and risk analytics dashboards

    • Performance measurement and attribution

    • Risk metrics and analytics – beta, VaR, tracking error, correlation, risk attribution

    • Analytics using third-party platforms

    • Middle Office support

    • Portfolio Operations

    • Investment reporting

    • Portfolio analytics maintenance work on platforms such as FactSet, Barra Aegis, Axioma, Wilshire Axiom, Bloomberg and POINT

    • Portfolio Analytics and Reporting


    We have distinguished ourselves from peers through our innovative products and client-centric and thought leadership approach in portfolio analytics and reporting and management. We enable clients to work on a "lean" model by offshoring analytical and technology requirements, increasing their bandwidth to focus on value-added strategies. We also help clients leverage our industry experience for superior portfolio risk analytics, efficient investment operations, enhanced reporting solutions, robust data integration and management, and bespoke applications, tools and dashboards. Our customers have experienced significant value from our strong capital markets knowledge coupled with data and technology capabilities to build innovative and tailored managed service solutions.

  • Index Solutions

    As the focus shifts towards more passive strategies and ETFs, cost pressure increases, driving the need for innovative, market-relevant products and building infrastructure to support growth. Acuity Knowledge Partners is one of the leading global third-party vendor of index support, with more than 10 years of experience in supporting four of the world’s topindex providers. We offer end-to-end index support services under one roof – we provide index development and operations across strategy and benchmark indices with multi-asset-class coverage, thematic and strategy research, index marketing and client servicing.

    By leveraging our broad suite of Index services and solutions, our clients are able to move up the value chain and overcome budgetary and research bandwidth constraints. We help our clients develop and test new and monetisable research ideas. Furthermore, our research and analytics expertise and ability to take on regular maintenance work free up their time to focus on higher-priority objectives.

  • Structured Finance Services

    Acuity Knowledge Partners works with specialised structured finance companies and securitisation desks at leading investment banks and institutional investors globally, supporting their key business functions such as asset finance, structuring, portfolio management, research, trading, risk analytics and reporting. Our analysts work as a natural extension of client teams, providing support on critical tasks such as the following:


    • Loan tape cracking

    • Bespoke cash flow/credit modelling

    • Sourcing, organising and mining market data, and tracking custom metrics

    • Sell-side/buy-side research and publication

    • Valuation, stress testing and scenario analysis

    • Custom database/technology and automation solutions


    We take pride in our analyst pool with their multi-asset-class experience across functions in the securitisation space. Our deep domain understanding and tool-agnostic approach, coupled with in-house custom technology offerings, enable us to provide highly relevant, efficient and scalable solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing client systems and processes.

  • Data Science

    Global technology megatrends, regulatory developments, the competitive landscape and the rise of alternative data have been driving a paradigm shift in the capital markets ecosystem. Demand to find new avenues of alpha creation powered by data science techniques is at unprecedented levels. Acuity has been providing highly bespoke quantitative and technology-powered solutions to our buy-side and sell-side clients since 2005. To address growing demand in recent years, we launched a dedicated data science practice early in 2019 to provide unique and contextual insights based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

  • Research Publishing

    Research Publishing services, including supervisory analyst (SA) approval, editing, formatting & publishing, and design, have become a bottleneck for timely publication of reports and an area where costs have increased, since skilled SAs, editors, and formatting & publishing and design specialists are difficult to hire, train, and retain. Many of our clients are, therefore, outsourcing the process to reduce costs, increase efficiency, cut down on management oversight, and tap into a large pool of skilled resources with domain expertise.

    Acuity Knowledge Partners’ Research Publishing team – SAs, Editors, and Formatting & Publishing and Graphic Design Specialists – has over 15 years of experience serving global financial services firms. They review, approve, and publish research, meeting tough deadlines in a fast-paced work environment and amid a heavy flow of content. Working with our teams across the globe, clients can take advantage of the ‘follow-the-sun’ engagement model, ensuring greater efficiency and productivity.

How we are different

One-stop solution for asset managers and private wealth managers, with expertise and offerings spanning front- and middle-office functions

Extensive experience supporting over 100 asset and private wealth managers across all major asset classes

Technology-driven services for front- and middle-office functions, led by our proprietary automation tool – BEAT (business excellence and automation tools)

Experience helping clients set up virtual captives to realise long-term strategic objectives

Multi-language support and near-shore capabilities, with access to best talent pool

What we have done

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Portfolio Research and Operations for an Institutional Asset Manager
What we are proud of

$1.4M

in annualized savings

80%

faster turnaround time

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Financial Marketing Services for a Europe-based Asset Manager
What we are proud of

$2.4m

annualized cost savings

>30,000

reports generated per annum

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Centralization and Automation of Updates
What we are proud of

20%

gain in process efficiency

30%

reduction in CDB updating time

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Building an Integrated Global RFP Support Team for a Europe-based Asset Manager
What we are proud of

40%

RFP win rate

~96%

response acceptance rate

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Web Content Management for a US-based Asset Manager
What we are proud of

$1.6m

in annualized cost savings

60%

decrease in turnaround time

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Investment Management, Research and Operations for an Institutional Asset Manager
What we are proud of

$1.4m

in annualized savings

>$1m

in annual savings

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Equity Research Support for a Europe Based Asset Manager
What we are proud of

1,200

models standardized and 650 results updated every quarter

~75

industry reviews and 9 additional due diligence reports

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Meet our experts

Chamara Gunetileke, CFA

Senior Director, Specialized Solutions

Chamara Gunetileke leads the Quant Equity Strategy practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He has over 14 years of experience in capital market research outsourcing across the equity, fixed income, and quantitative services verticals. He currently mentors several teams on end-to-end equity strategy development, from ideation and quantitative analysis/interpretation to professional research writing. Prior to this, he handled the scoping and execution of new equity and credit businesses at the Colombo office. He has provided offshore analyst support to equity and credit teams covering North America for large sell-side firms. Chamara is a CFA Charterholder and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Science.

Chamara Gunetileke, CFA
Sailaja Devireddy

Senior Director, Financial Marketing Services

Sailaja Devireddy has 16 years of work experience and heads the Financial Marketing Services (FMS) division at Acuity Knowledge Partners. She specializes in the capital markets domain, including equity markets, fund solutions, and fund marketing support for asset managers and ETFs. She has vast experience in transitioning and leading global teams. She is actively involved in account management, client engagement and project management of large teams that provide end-to-end support to global asset managers on a variety of FMS activities. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary

Sailaja Devireddy
Pedro Armstrong

Co-Head of Business Development in North America

Pedro Armstrong is a Managing Director at Acuity Knowledge Partners and leads business development efforts in the Americas for the Corporate and Commercial Banking, Buy-side, and Sell-side segments. He is responsible for managing key client engagements and works in partnership with capital market firms to provide customized solutions across research and analytics support, origination and lending support, and marketing and compliance support. He has been with the organization for 12 years, serving in various roles across Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and now the US. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, he was a Central Bank Regulator at the Central Bank of Barbados. Pedro, who is a British Chevening Scholar, holds a Master’s degree (honors) in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School, City University, London.

Pedro Armstrong
Chanakya Dissanayake

Managing Director/Country Head, Sri Lanka, Head of Investment Research

Chanakya Dissanayake leads the investment research vertical at Acuity and counts over 16 years with the firm. In addition, Chanakya manages the Colombo delivery center that provides investment research, quant – data science , commercial lending and FMS services. Investment research vertical is responsible for the buy-side, sell-side and private wealth management clientele that obtains equity and fixed income research from Acuity. Chanakya is a CFA charterholder and a fellow member of ACCA (UK) and CIMA (UK).

Chanakya Dissanayake
Balaji Ramakrishnan

Senior Director, EMEA Sales Head - Banking and Asset Management

Balaji Ramakrishnan leads Europe and Middle East business development for Acuity. Having spent his formative years in core banking technology operations, he brings a deep understanding of credit processes and the ability to make analytics-driven decisions. He works closely with senior client stakeholders as a trusted partner, shaping the business case for scaled efficiencies through centralisation, standardisation and intelligent automation within Commercial Lending and Asset Management verticals.

Balaji has established long-term partnerships with banks, asset managers and insurance firms across a number of front and middle office transformation initiatives over the past 20 years. Prior to Acuity, he worked at Accenture and Oracle, serving European financial services clients. He holds an MBA from the London Business School.

Balaji Ramakrishnan
Marie Filotti

Director, APAC Business Development

Marie Filotti heads APAC Business Development at Acuity Knowledge Partners and is based in Hong Kong. She joined the firm in 2018 after 13 years in Investment Banking and Capital Markets, mainly at Nomura (previously Lehman Brothers), and also worked on the corporate side, having run Investor Relations at a China-based ASX-listed gas company. She uses her experience in the industry to advise our clients on best practices in implementation of engagements across all sectors. Marie holds a BA from Yale University and a Masters in Finance from Sciences-Po Paris.

Marie Filotti
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