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Bank of New York Mellon is taking the next step in its software and data management business.
The New York City custodian bank announced in February that it was working with Microsoft to enhance the tools it offers to clients, including asset managers and wealth managers. Akash Shah, BNY Mellon’s chief growth officer, said it’s important for BNY to “help customers connect to their data, store it, analyze it, and gain insights to make better trading, risk and operational decisions.” “It’s about being a place that people can trust to provide that.” .
BNY’s data and analytics division has been around for more than 20 years and serves more than 800 clients, including asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, broker-dealers and registered investment advisors. These can connect to third-party data sources, provide analytical tools accessible via application programming interfaces, data feeds, or portals, and can be stored on-premises, in the public cloud, or in a private cloud through Microsoft Azure.
The relationship with Microsoft goes back many years, but the companies announced several features in 2020, including the ability for investment managers to customize portfolios for environmental, social, and governance factors. , the February announcement marks the first joint marketing effort by the two companies. A company sells software to customers. BNY provides Microsoft’s advanced analytics software to its data management clients. This allows customers to process their own data, combine it with external data already provided by BNY to create one comprehensive view, and analyze it in near real-time using Microsoft’s public and latest versions. . private cloud.
This also represents the early stages of a trend in custody banks. JPMorgan launched Fusion, a cloud-native data management platform for institutional investors, in 2022, using Amazon Web Services as part of its technology stack. State Street acquired Charles River Development, a provider of investment management front office tools, in 2018.
“Data management is a competitive space and we are seeing expansion,” said Adler Smith, capital markets advisor at Datos Insights, adding that custody banks are competing with traditional data management players such as Simcorp and GoldenSource. He pointed out that there was.
“While we have worked closely with Microsoft on our core data management platform for some time, we are excited to announce that we are taking steps to move beyond that and provide the latest technology, cloud, and analytics to businesses. “We thought it was the right time,” Shah said, to help with data management. “Microsoft typically doesn’t do this and brings it to market with clients as a joint solution.”
This latest version of BNY’s data and analytics platform allows customers to track portfolio performance and analyze investments according to benchmarks and indexes. For example, the dashboard shows a breakdown of a company’s market value and book value, unrealized P&L on positions, and creates pie charts showing positions in different currencies.
“Part of what makes us special is helping clients connect and analyze all kinds of data so they can understand what their absolute returns are,” Shah said. Ta.
Microsoft has also partnered with London Stock Exchange Group and Moody’s in recent years to jointly develop new data and analytics products.
“Our partnership framework allows BNY Mellon to leverage multiple Microsoft technologies to develop next-generation data management and software products tailored to the unique needs of capital markets firms.” said Karen Del Vescovo, head of U.S. Financial Services. via email. “We are also actively collaborating on some artificial intelligence capabilities that can be incorporated for increased productivity and better-informed decision-making.”
Smith said partnering with a name like Microsoft could give BNY a competitive edge.
“Customers don’t tend to easily switch users of data management solutions,” said Capco partner Glenn Karvan.
“We’re seeing more and more of these buying patterns and behaviors among customers,” he said. “Even if there was better competitive technology available, they would say no, we’re a Microsoft shop or a Google shop.”
Shah also expressed a similar opinion.
“Working with Microsoft makes it easier for clients to say, ‘BNY Mellon has both the data knowledge and the best technology, so we can access the entire ecosystem through you,'” Shah said. .
