New research by State Street Corporation reveals that more than half (60 per cent) of institutional investors surveyed plan to partly or fully outsource their data management over the next three years.
Currently, 52 per cent conduct all of their data management functions in house, however, by 2021, this is expected to fall to 36 per cent with 15 per cent aiming to fully outsource this function to an external partner.
“Explosion in data complexity has fundamentally changed the way asset owners and asset managers compete and operate,” says Subbiah Subramanian, global head of State Street Global Exchange’s data-as-a-service offering, DataGX. “Today’s investment climate requires an overwhelming amount of data, and as the lines between front, middle and back office continue to blur, smarter data management is absolutely essential for effective performance and recognising growth opportunities.”
More than half of survey respondents (57 per cent) cite the driver behind this change in data management as demands from regulators. However, it also appears that data [management] is rapidly becoming increasingly important to institutional investors with almost one-third (30 per cent) stating that the incorporation of new information insights or alternative data into their investment process will be one of the strongest opportunities to help increase assets for their firm over the next five years.
In addition, almost half (46 per cent) of respondents believe the implementation of a better data strategy has improved the alignment of their investment and risk teams; and 22 per cent believe their data and analytics capabilities have become their most important competitive advantage.
“In an environment of increasing regulatory requirements, and with low yields necessitating investors to look into alternative – and often more complex – sources of alpha, it seems clear that institutional investors will continue to prioritise data management and analytics to make better investment decisions, meet regulatory requirements, and gain competitive advantage,” says David Pagliaro, head of State Street Global Exchange, EMEA. “It appears the natural and most effective next stage of this technological evolution is for institutional investors to partner with data and analytics specialists, allowing them to focus on their core competencies.”
