Asset Manager - Reference Data Review
Global Asset Manager- Market Reference Data Supplier Review
Assignment Summary
Pentagon were engaged by this Asset Manager to conduct a review of the current competitor landscape for the provision of market reference data; covering securities master, benchmarks, indices and issuer data.
Approach
The purpose of the review was to identify the potential to increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs, high level coverage included: General Services, Client Base, Coverage, Data Implementation and Integration costs.
This exercise was completed by undertaking the following process steps:
- Client workshops to ascertain current state and baseline requirements, including analysis of client’s current reference data
- Identification and validation of the list of potential vendors
- Preparation and production of an RFP presented to seven service providers, circulation and vendor management, collation of responses
- Preparation and delivery of evaluation results with recommendations
Challenges
The exercises had to be completed in a short window of time. As a result, the management of the participating vendors were critical and the RFP needed to be structured in a way to enable the vendors to manage the requirements for a response in a reasonable time.
Outcome
As a result of the review, it was possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the alternative providers and benchmark these against the current service provision.
The review concluded that there were a number of opportunities to improve efficiencies by reducing the number of unutilised and obsolete securities being processed in conjunction with an overall potential for an annualised cost reduction of approximately 22%.