Order and portfolio management software providers are extending the reach of their offerings with features that address market challenges such as separately managed accounts (SMAs), middle and back office operations, and regulatory reporting requirements.
Providers of order and portfolio management system (OMS and PMS) software are quickly moving to expand their offerings beyond the traditional front office. The vendors foresee opportunities in helping firms better manage the new, closer ties between the front office and post-trade operations.
With operational efficiencies in mind, SunGard and Advent Software recently announced that they are integrating the SunGard Global Network (SGN) with Advent’s Moxy OMS. The SGN/Moxy integration enables SMA managers to move away from the manual extraction of data from the OMS in order to upload data to a SMA sponsor platform for trade execution. In addition, the integration provides connectivity options and automates the flow of data from multiple sponsors into and out of the Moxy OMS and includes a FIX-based allocation and post-trade system that delivers allocation messages in a variety of formats.
SMA managers, also called “wrap” managers, are facing increasing operational challenges in managing multiple sponsors and workflows, and the SGN/Moxy integration is targeting their concerns, says Aaron Adolphson, product manager for order management solutions at Advent Software in a statement. The combined SunGard/Advent offering will “simplify the complexity of managing these types of accounts and more fully leverage the growth potential that the accounts provide to their business,” Adolphson says.
The workflow gaps in administering SMAs are “usually very clear” for firms that are managing separate and manual processes for each relationship/sponsor and this amounts to “unwanted overhead for a trader not to mention a risk to the business,” Adolphson says. “Our research and framework created directly from client and market feedback is meant to insure that clients are not forced to use disparate systems for different types of their equity trading processes.”
Advent and SunGard have had a connectivity partnership for their mutual clients for more than 12 years, and began working on the joint SMA service two years ago, he says.
“We started engaging our clients to understand their expanding needs in the wrap space and laid the framework for bringing the industry standard FIX practices for trading and allocations to the SMA workflows,” Adolphson says. “This most recent announcement and growth in capability was initiated and executed in six months.”
The joint offering targets wealth managers, institutional managers and hybrids of the two that “stand the most to gain as they simplify workflows and systems in the wrap space just as they have done with their long-standing traditional equity products,” says Adolphson.
SMA managers oversee the administration, commission and management of portfolios for a flat fee.
Another OMS provider, Eze Castle Software, part of the ConvergEx Group, has expanded its enterprise data management offering, Eze Data Management, with the Regulatory Filings Manager module, which integrates with the Eze OMS. The module, working with other systems, routes enterprise data for the new regulatory reporting requirement, dubbed Form PF. As firms grapple with more regulations, they will want a “standardized and streamlined process” for filing Form PF information, says Michael Hutner, managing director, co-head of global sales for ConvergEx’s Eze Castle Software, in a statement.
The new module also offers a repository for storing multiple filings with version control, say Eze Castle Software officials. The module also enables end-users to question each other across the enterprise and to file with the SEC via a FINRA interface. If there is an audit, the vendor also offers capabilities to review historical data.
In the portfolio management space, Linedata has added support for middle office operations to its Beauchamp PMS, which includes workflow improvements for corporate actions, stock loans, credit default swap (CDS) instruments, and swap financing, officials say. The greater support for middle office functions stems from the growing number of regulatory demands and counterparties, and the complexities of custodial relationships and investor tracking.
Leveraging the underlying database, the Beauchamp system also offers an interactive calendar for managing corporate actions and a single screen for stock loans, officials say. New P&L management capabilities offer the tracking of position level financing costs down to the individual investment level for real-time and historical data granularity. In addition to the middle-office workflow enhancements, the Beauchamp upgrade offers data visualization tools.
Tighter margins and increasing costs are compelling hedge funds to find efficiencies and the latest enhancements to Beauchamp offer a more “streamlined middle office infrastructure,” says Ed Gouldstone, head of hedge fund product strategy for Linedata, in a statement. The Linedata Beauchamp system is part of the vendor’s modular front-to-back hedge fund platform, which can be deployed internally or hosted.
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