P13

Brokerages and Trading Firms

Reducing time to market and improving operational flexibility of brokerage and trading firms across their value chain, including research, publishing, operations and technology

Stock Brokerage and Trading Firms

Brokerages and trading firms partner with Acuity Knowledge Partners to reduce cost per research output, increase operational flexibility, and improve productivity. We help to increase senior analysts’ bandwidth. By having Acuity Knowledge Partners take on 30 – 75% of their coverage initiation and maintenance-related process, in-house teams are able to spend more time with clients, generate additional new ideas, and expand coverage at a faster pace than their competitors

Brokerage and Trading Firms – Support We Offer

  • 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).

How we are different

Pioneer in capital markets, with two-decade record supporting global teams on equity, credit, ESG and macro/quants research; data science and research publishing

Delivery centres in Bangalore, Gurgaon, Colombo, Beijing and San José, providing multi-language, near-shore and offshore support amid heightened competition for talent

Internal network of sector experts and trainings, CFA-accredited training programmes and continued education programmes, which ensure highly trained and effective analysts support multiple asset classes and functions of stock brokerage and trading firms

Strong experience partnering with offshore captives of brokerage and trading firms to provide required expertise and value

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

What we have done

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Derivative Structuring for a Europe Based Investment Bank
What we are proud of

$350k

in annualized cost savings

5X

increase in annual bespoke hedging pitches

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Quants Index Support for a Europe-based Investment Bank
What we are proud of

$3.5m

annualized cost savings

40,000

indices being supported

Support for Consulting and Corporate Firms
Research Production for a European-based Investment Bank
What we are proud of

>50%

savings in staffing costs

25%

increase in outreach

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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
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
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