Financial messaging standard connectivity for asset managers and asset custodians
The Issue
Electronic communication between asset managers and their asset custodians encounters many problems. There is no industry standard for the messaging format, transport protocol or data contained within a clients’ portfolio, such as positions, transactions, corporate actions, reference data such as prices, financial instruments. Most consuming applications, e.g. Portfolio Management Systems (PMS), supplied by software vendors have one interface which can be used to import a subset of data contained within a clients’ portfolio. This means that the asset manager is forced to implement some kind of system to convert the electronic client portfolio data from their asset custodians to the format of their chosen PMS. Also, asset custodians normally produce just one format (e.g. a SWIFT variation or proprietary implementation), a format over which they maintain ownership and control modifications.
- Each asset custodian spends time defining, producing, maintaining and upgrading their electronic interfaces in order to deliver different subset of data within a client’s portfolio.
- Each PMS is built using a technology preference for the best format to accept electronic client portfolio data.
- Increasing customisations by PMS vendors lead to lack of standardisation.
The solution
The Incentage Capital Bus allows messaging applications to obtain high levels of decoupling, by allowing producing applications (i.e. asset custodians’ electronic interfaces) to communicate with consuming applications (i.e. PMS) without any change to their internal data representation or communication interfaces.
By exploiting the power of IMS, the Incentage Middleware Suite, and its rules-driven conversion components, execution of expensive customisations on both producing (i.e. depository bank's electronic interfaces) and consuming applications (i.e. PMS) can be avoided. Built with a comprehensive data model describing any data contained within a client’s portfolio can be transformed to one common, XML compliant format.
Benefits
- Lower processing costs
- Increased straight-through processing
- Reduced settlement risk
- Reduced implementation times
- A fast time to market
- Scalability
- Compliance with any third party applications and messaging standards, assures seamless exchanges of electronic messages with external infrastructures and transaction counterparts
