Asset managers turning to emerging technologies 01 June 2018Paris Reporter: Maddie Saghir
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Asset managers are turning to emerging technologies as regulatory dust settles, according to Linedata’s eighth global asset management survey.
Linedata’s research showed that there is a shifting focus away from regulation as companies prepare for a new wave of demands and opportunities afforded by disruptive technologies.
In recent years, adapting to new regulation was considered one of the main challenges for over half of respondents with 51 percent in 2017 and 52 percent in 2016.
This has dropped to 37 percent in the 2018 survey, with cutting costs (37 percent), attracting new client assets (29 percent), managing data (23 percent), and managing risk (21 percent) cited as asset manager’s other key concerns.
According to 22 percent of survey respondents, new intermediation models including robo advisors are considered to be the biggest potential disruptor to the asset management industry over the next five years.
This was followed by ETFs, which 20 percent of respondents forecast as a significant disruptor, blockchain technology 16 percent and machine learning and artificial intelligence 12 percent.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity remains one of the top three challenges facing asset management firms according to 25 percent of respondents.
Sophie Février, co-head of asset management and innovation director at Linedata, said: “Now that the regulatory dust has settled asset managers are looking to future growth and the challenges and the opportunities offered by emerging disruptive technologies.”
“The years ahead will bring exciting change as conceptual testing leads to implementation in areas such as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence tools.”
Arnaud Allmang, co-head of asset management at Linedata, added: “The 2018 survey results show a sector embarking on a transformation process to succeed and grow.”
“The emergence of big data and analytics allows asset management firms to enhance the efficiency of their decision-making process, and to provide products and services to clients, which can distinguish them from the crowd. Since 2017, Linedata has been evolving its strategy to better support the growth desired by asset managers, and is now able to provide a combined offering of services & software incorporating cutting edge technologies.”
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