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In Q3 of 2022, WBR Insights surveyed 100 Heads of Investment Operations and similar at buy-side firms across Europe to find out about the challenges they are facing in 2022 and the innovative solutions being brought to the table.

In Q1 of 2022, WBR Insights surveyed 300 CEOs, CIOs, Directors of Middle Office and similar from across APAC, EMEA and North America regions, from asset management firms with an AUM of $500bn and below. This survey will seek to gain a better understanding of whether asset managers’ strategies have changed since 2020, given market and industry influences such as remote work, staffing challenges and the rise of ESG. 

This report aims to gain a greater understanding of where buy-side firms across the globe see their strategic priorities now lying as we emerge from the pandemic. We surveyed 200 decision-makers on a range of key issues, including the optimization of the overall operating model, data management and reporting, and the future of work.

MethodologyIn Q1 of 2021, WBR Insights surveyed 100 Chief Financial and Technology Officers and similar from both buy-side and sell-side global firms across North America and Canada, EMEA, and APAC to find out about the billing operational challenges they are facing in 2021, due to the impact of COVID-19.Our survey sought to understand how capital market firms are transforming their billing processes through intelligent workflows and to illustrate how the adoption of automation can help reduce revenue leakage and operational efficiency.

System consolidation is anything but a trivial undertaking. A quick glance at any investment manager's technology stack more often than not reveals a patchwork of vendor-supplied and homegrown platforms, plumbed together to facilitate at least basic interoperability, with the shortfall made up by work-arounds and manual intervention, a scenario borne out by the responses to the survey underpinning this whitepaper.

In Q2 of 2021, WBR Insights surveyed 300 CEOs, CIOs, Chief Data Information Officers and similar from across APAC, EMEA and North America regions, from asset management firms with an AUM of $1bn - $750bn and hedge funds managers with an AUM of $250m - $10bn to find out what their strategies are for maximizing their data, how they incorporate those data into their investment process and their plans to leverage data science tools to optimize their investment performance. The results were compiled and anonymized by WBR Insights and are presented here with analysis and commentary from Northern Trust contributors Marc Mallett, Head of Strategy for Asset Servicing, Americas, Paul Fahey, Head of Investment Data Science, and Gary Paulin, Head of Global Strategic Solutions.

Back in 2018, InvestCloud Financial Supermarket (formerly Tegra118) and WBR conducted a survey to understand how buy-side firms were faring with their current billings processes and how the adoption of automation could help reduce revenue leakage.Since the outbreak of Covid-19, it’s become more important than ever before for buy-side firms to boost their automation technology and overhaul manual processes and outdated legacy systems to keep up with the competition.

Resilience and adaptability are key for all successful businesses. In this in-depth interview, Else Braathen, Risk domain manager at SimCorp, explores both these concepts within the financial sector and shares her expertise when it comes to managing risk in times of crisis.

While finance is a notoriously fast moving industry, the overnight shift to mobilise operations has massively impacted organisations across the globe. Since COVID-19 necessitated sweeping lockdowns, buy-side Investops teams have been scrambling to adapt, and the tech infrastructure of firms has been put in the spotlight. This report will present findings from a survey of 100 Heads of Investment Operations from firms across Europe, in order to help you gain a better understanding of your peers, data strategies, and how they’ve had to adapt during the pandemic.

In Q1 of 2020, WBR Insights surveyed 300 Heads of Investment Operations from asset management firms across the APAC, EMEA and North America regions, with AUM ranging from $10bn - $500bn, to find out how they are looking to drive growth in a challenging market.The results were compiled and anonymized by WBR Insights and are presented here with analysis and commentary from Northern Trust contributors Ryan Burns, Head of GFS, North America; Clive Bellows, Head of GFS, EMEA; and Caroline Higgins,Head of GFS, Asia. .wbr-sponsors-rotator {display:none;}

The European buy-side has turned a corner. In recent years many buy-side managers have focused on cost-cutting to mitigate financial turbulence. However, the latest research from InvestOps and Simcorp has found that many firms have now adopted a forward-looking approach, and seek to use automation and innovative technology to carve out a competitive advantage.

Data management is under more scrutiny than ever before. With a deluge of regulations threatening heavy fines and even more destructive reputational damage, data has worked its way up to become a board level concern. Discover how Heads of Finance, IT, and Data Management are responding. 

In Q1 of 2018 SimCorp commissioned WBR Insights to conduct a survey of 100 Heads of Investment Operations based in Europe. The research prioritised firms on the buy side, including asset management firms and institutional investors. Respondents to the survey were Directors and Heads of Investment Operations, Heads of Derivatives Operations, Heads of Securities Operations as well as others of an equal standing. The survey was conducted by appointment over the telephone. The results were compiled and anonymised by the WBR Insights research team, and are presented here with analysis and commentary from the industry experts at SimCorp.