Europe’s largest asset manager has unveiled a new business line designed to sell technology services to other asset managers and to compete with BlackRock.
Amundi Technology is described as a ‘complete front to back, cloud-based offering’ for all institutions in the asset management and savings industry.
It is centred on its portfolio management system Alto, a potential rival to BlackRock’s Aladdin system as well as third party systems like SimCorp’s Dimension which also offer a ‘front-to-back’ capability.
The French firm has been selling Alto to other fund managers via its Amundi Services division since 2017 and already has 24 clients.
In explaining the reason for the launch of Amundi Technologies, COO Guillame Lesage, said that asset managers have been looking to save money on their IT costs and also adopt more digital technology – trends that have been accelerated by the Covid 19 pandemic.
Lesage also addressed comparisons with BlackRock, which offers its Aladdin system via its BlackRock Solutions arm.
“There is competition from Aladdin as well as the likes of SimCorp and Temenos,” said Lesage. He highlighted that with Alto the firm covers “the full range” of the savings industry, including discretionary management and retirement savings, as well as asset management.
Amundi has also collaborated with asset servicers BNY Mellon and Caceis to build its front to back capability. It completed the integration with BNY Mellon’s Omni platform in January and is currently in the process of integrating the Caceis platform.
Lesage also referenced the wholly cloud-based and open source status of the Alto offering as a differentiator with other services in the market.
Amundi is targeting €150 million ($180 million) in revenue over the next five years from its new business line. By contrast, BlackRock Solutions generated $785 in revenue 2018, the majority of which came via sales of Aladdin.
The business will be headed by Arnaud Fricaudet, head of IT at Amundi, and will be manned by the firm’s 700 IT staff across 19 countries including its two operational hubs in Paris and Dublin.
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