Asset management is poised to go places in the coming decade, courtesy of the emergence of some global "sleeping giants," such as the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). The BRIC nations are only an indicative example of the emerging trend.
Asset management firms have successfully outsourced back-office functions such as portfolio accounting, reconciliations, and performance measurement for quite some time now. What's new in the sector is the outsourcing of the middle-office function with an eye toward reducing costs and refocusing on front-office activities.
The FSO Excellence Awards provided a fitting finale to FSOkx’s well-attended Financial Services Outsourcing Annual Summit held on June 5, 2008, at the New York Helmsley Hotel in New York City. The awards portion of the day was handled by Rekha Vatsa, CEO of FSOkx, and Myra Thomas, managing editor of FSO Magazine.
On May 8, 2008, FSO Knowledge Exchange held its inaugural Asset Management Industry Outsourcing Roundtable in London at the law offices of Morgan Lewis. FSOkx CEO Rekha Vatsa welcomed more than 40 guests to the event to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the fund management industry, as they look to outsourcing to cut costs and provide better services.
Attendees at the 2008 Financial Services Outsourcing Summit, presented by FSO Knowledge Xchange on June 5, listened attentively to speakers and panelists detailing the latest trends and forecasts in the business processing outsourcing industry.
Outsourcing back-office business processes to less-expensive nations such as China, India, Brazil, the Philippines, or Malaysia has enabled companies to cut overhead, concentrate on core business efforts, and drive client satisfaction.
The prototypical contract structure for asset management outsourcing services consists of a set of multiple related contracts that leverage common terms and conditions. If the parties are not careful at the outset, the interactions and collisions of priorities among stakeholders can subject the outsourcing relationship to unnecessary friction and confusion.
Azim Premji inherited his father’s $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company in 1966, and he later repositioned it and created Wipro Ltd., a Bangalore, India-based IT services organization with 2007 revenues of $3.4 billion.
At a company that handles financial transactions for several banks, an account manager works on a spreadsheet that includes thousands of client bank account numbers, social security numbers, and other personally identifiable information.
What a difference a year and a half makes. At the time of this writing, gasoline has surpassed $4.00 per gallon in the U.S. A mere 18 months ago, gasoline was $2.20 per gallon. Bear Stearns was “bailed out” by the Fed and purchased by JP Morgan Chase.
The first half of 2008 proved to be favorable for those providing outsourcing to the financial services sector. According to an FSOkx analysis, our research team tallied 659 outsourcing deals in the financial sector for the first half of 2008.
Global M&A activity in the financial services sector remained strong in 2007. As the impact of the subprime upheaval trickles down in 2008, the resulting erosion in valuations may present several major opportunities for leading financial organizations.
