Regulatory change projects are the main priority for 93% of asset managers polled by investment consultancy Investit at a conference in London.
Asked for their top three priorities, concern about regulation outstripped worries about data management (which registered as the second priority for 66%), and front office systems (the third priority for 52%).
Investit said that where firms are looking to make changes to the front office, a key driver was to improve support for multi-asset strategies.
“After the UK Budget announcement that defined contribution pension savers will no longer be required to buy annuities there is a great opportunity for fund managers to provide retirement income products,” says Catherine Doherty, chief executive, Investit. “We expect a lot more work to go into supporting large scale multi-asset processes to meet this potential demand.”
The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) was the regulatory development that caused most concern, followed by changes to central clearing in the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and Dodd-Frank rules.
Investit says it polled 60 senior management delegates from 24 investment managers and investment operations service providers.
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