Rahul Kanwar of SS&C Technologies explains that increasing automation will change the way fund administration is performed in the years ahead
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SS&C Technologies recently acquired CACEIS’s fund administration business, what were the company’s motivations behind the acquisition?
SS&C has a long history of successfully acquiring and integrating in the fund administration space.
These acquisitions have increased the firm’s intellectual capital by gaining highly-skilled employees and have helped to increase SS&C’s client base by gaining managers with unique strategies.
With the acquisition of CACEIS North America, SS&C adds a team that has delivered high-quality service to its clients for over a decade and adds to SS&C’s depth and capability.
How will the acquisition help expand your current offering? And what opportunities does it provide?
The acquisition provides SS&C with a great footprint in Canada and brings with it a number of experts in the nuances of fund administration for Canada, the US and other domiciles.
For customers it provides access to a wider range of products and services and for CACEIS North America employees, an opportunity to be part of the world’s largest fund administration business.
How is the fund administration space currently faring? What trends are you currently seeing?
The fund administration industry is a diverse one with both large and small players.
Quality administration services are needed more than ever for the investment industry, and SS&C remains well-positioned to capitalise on market opportunities.
Some global trends which SS&C is focusing on include: retailisation of alternative strategies such as liquid alternatives and UCITS; enhancing electronic client communication, onboarding, and data protection; and an increasing diversification in the jurisdictions and strategies by which managers seek performance, bringing with it operational complexities that SS&C is geared up to help solve.
What are your views on regulation in the financial services industry? What challenges/opportunities do they provide?
We view our role as being that of helping investment firms comply with various regulations world-wide that they may be subject to. In this we are helped by our history as a technology and commercial software company as well as by our knowledge of operational and accounting processes. We have over 700 investment firms that we provide regulatory and compliance services for and view this as a key value-add and differentiator.
What are the biggest challenges the industry will face over the next 12 months?
Keeping up with technology advancements will be challenging for managers and service providers alike. Ensuring data protection will be top of mind to investors, raising capital and finding performance remain perennial priorities as well as for asset managers.
How do you see the industry developing over the next five years? What are your predictions?
Increasing automation will change the way administration is performed in the years ahead. Leaning on technology, and integrating all steps of the process together seamlessly, will reduce the potential for error and enhance the quality of service experience. Managers will increasingly seek more value-add applications of their data held by custodians, prime brokers and administrators. In addition, we will continue to see a wide spectrum of asset classes and geographies traded within the same manager requiring robust applications to help normalise and provide required analytics.
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