Operational Resource Centre

Sat here writing this article in one of London’s many coffee shops there are at least half a dozen others tapping away on their MacBooks. By 2020, it is estimated that 40 to 50 per cent of the global workforce will work for themselves, in a freelance or independent consultant capacity, collaborating with people on platforms to deliver a particular service or solution. 

By James Williams (pictured) – The private equity secondary market has experienced significant growth in deal volumes and investor interest in recent years. According to Cogent Partners, secondaries volume was USD22.5 billion in 2010. This rose to USD27.5 billion in 2013, and reached USD42 billion in 2014. Last year, deal flow was estimated to have reached USD40-50 billion. 

One of the clear benefits to the increased proliferation of platforms, which offer infrastructure-as-a-solution, is that it is helping start-up and emerging fund managers compete on a level playing field with larger entities. 

Asset management has always been an information-based business and as such, managers are not immune to facing innovative and disruptive forces making inroads in other industries.  

In the first of a five-part series, SEI discusses the impact of five disruptive technologies and how they can be applied to the financial industry. The first of these five trends relates to IBM Watson, and the power of cognitive computing. 

One of the biggest issues with risk when it comes to investing is that investors will invariably think about it in binary terms; what is the level of risk? Is it too high or too low? Of greater import, however, is understanding the composition of risk. 

Navigating the increased regulatory requirements of AIFMD has been a costly and resource-intensive exercise for many investment managers over the past few years. Now that the dust has settled on AIFMD, fund managers need to decide on, and implement, the most efficient operating models that allow them to manage assets and raise new capital. 

Private equity managers are finding that increased demands for transparency from their LPs are requiring them to change their mindset, especially when it comes to sharing information on how assets are valued. 

The business of asset management has grown exponentially more complex over the last decade. As system technology and data management improves, managers are devising ever-new investment strategies to find that elusive source of alpha. 

To help overcome the increased reporting burden faced by private equity managers, SEI has developed an automated end-client reporting capability. It comes at a time when global PE firms are having to adapt to regulation in the form of AIFMD and Annex IV reporting, not to mention a desire by LPs to derive greater transparency from their PE allocations.