The 2020 Investment Reporting Survey for Asset Managers

Insights

Acuity Knowledge Partners conducted a survey of asset managers to understand the challenges they face in investment reporting. Our survey targeted chief operating officers (COOs), heads of performance and reporting, heads of client services, heads of investment operations and heads of investment reporting at leading global asset management firms.

Key Takeaways

• Reporting teams are still struggling to meet deadlines, despite using the latest, cutting-edge
   reporting tools
- Only 30% of respondents said they are able to meet their reporting deadlines all the time
- Key problems: Data integration, data quality issues, and inadequate features of off-the-shelf
   reporting tools are the major reasons for delay in report production.
• Data management, in particular, is the biggest pain point for all reporting teams
- 89% of respondents are facing challenges in data integration owing to the lack of
   a centralised database.
• Collaboration with third-party reporting vendors will likely help overcome these challenges given their
   expertise and experience with the reporting domain
- 70% of respondents believe such vendors have the ability to provide (a) quality emerging-technology
   solutions, digital expertise and automation support and (b) high-quality services.

Authors

Stevi Joseph

Director, Head of Investment Operations

Stevi heads the Investment Operations and Portfolio Analytics practices at Acuity Knowledge Partners. Based in Bangalore, he oversees a large number of client engagements across geographies. He has over 17 years of experience in the investment management industry across investment operations, fund accounting, portfolio risk analytics and data management. During his 14 years with Acuity, he was successful in building bespoke tools for asset managers for their analytics and reporting purposes. Stevi holds a Master of Science degree in Physics.

Shankar Shivakumar, CFA

Director, Corporate Strategy

Shankar is responsible for implementing strategic initiatives at Acuity Knowledge Partners’ Specialised Solutions division and also heads data management operations for a large hedge fund. He has over 14 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, investment research and corporate finance. Shankar is a CFA Charterholder and holds a Master of Business Administration degree.

Priya Chakkingal

Director, Head – Index Services

'Priya has over 20 years of work experience in supporting index and ETF players in managing both benchmark and strategy indices across asset classes. At Acuity Knowledge Partners, she has been instrumental in setting up and managing teams supporting large index providers for over 12 years. Prior to this, she was with Infosys, where she was involved in supporting an Index Quants team for a large investment bank, primarily in construction and maintenance of fixed income indices. She holds a Master of Economics from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Mumbai.

Ankita Jhawar, CFA

Assistant Director, Portfolio Research, Operations and Risk

Ankita Jhawar has over 8 years of work experience in portfolio research and operations. At Acuity Knowledge Partners, she supports the investment marketing group of one of the largest global asset managers in client reporting activities. Prior to this, she provided support as a buy-side fixed income product specialist for multi-sector fixed income mandates. She is an alumnus of Goldman Sachs and D. E. Shaw & Co. She is also a CFA Charterholder and holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance and a Bachelor of Economics degree.

Investment Reporting Survey for Asset Managers 2020