IAMSystem^®: Integrated Asset Management System

IAMSystem^® is an Alif AMC proprietary Integrated Asset Management System (IAMS ) customized for Bangladesh Capital Market. The technology platform serves as research, investment & portfolio optimizer for varied asset classes such as equity, fixed income/bond, cash, currency, real state/immovable assets, funds and private equity. The system offers risk measured investment options. US origin

We can identify three main layers of functionality in our Investment Management system:

The Basic Entities Management Layer, where core entities such as Clients, Instruments, Portfolios, Markets, Counterparties are managed regarding their core data and workflows. In plain deployments or single solutions, such as stand alone or Asset Management, this layer maps clearly to the Back Office Layer.

The Product & Services Layer, where the business domain products are constructed from basic entities and managed in order to be sold to the clients. This layer may manage workflows both for basic entities and instruments that are sold as products, e.g. mutual fund instrument shares, and for more complex composite products and services that are sold as products to clients, such as Wealth Management's Discretionary Portfolio Management service contracts, Custody Services or Financial Plans. This layer usually maps to the Middle Office of operations and may span to Front and Back Office, depending on the solution type and the AMC policies. It is certainly where the solution specific logic is hosted, along with strategic goal setting, policy forming and compliance checks.

The Distribution Channels Layer, which accommodates the actual product selling procedures along with the interaction with existing and potential customers, including the management of client relationships. The layer usually maps best to the Front Office operations level, sometimes expanding to typical middle office operations depending on the AMC's procedures. The client interaction may be automated as in a web Asset/investment management front end or through an agent, as in a AMC branch through a cashier or a Relationship Manager, and may even reside outside the organization, being accommodated by an associate or subsidiary.

Layers of Functionality

Each of the above layers includes well defined functionality organised in highly specified components with clear interaction capabilities and provides services to the above layer or neighbouring components of the same layer. Interaction also goes from top downwards with above layers affecting the system status of same and lower level components as they process and transform information.

The major delivery of this integrated solution is to provide distinct and smoothly cooperating such layers

•  across all Investment Management domains, such as wealth management, retail investment, brokerage,    custody and fund management,
•  across products and services sold based on any instrument residing in multiple markets (or even    constructed ad hoc and traded OTC)
•  for all clientele types and segments and
•  independently from the distribution channel used

With these capabilities are met, it is possible for the IAMSystem^® system to provide company strategy setting and controlling functions such as system wide compliance, security and audit mechanisms, along with transactional and decision support reporting and MIS from all system modules. Interfacing for system layers can be serviced also through a global interface bus that provides structured and controlled connections to external systems that need to be serviced with data by the system or that provide information and complementary functionality to the system.

Core Advantage of IAMSystem^®technology platform

Complete business coverage by the IAMSystem^® system is probably the most obvious and most rare characteristic if one considers a single system used in the Investment Management. Although a major and probably the most significant criterion for each business area, in the new era of collaboration between business domains where the need is great to cross sell, up-sell and introduce new products and services in a frantic pace, business coverage on its own is not sufficient to guarantee success.

Customer Centric and CRM enabled philosophy. More said than done by most systems that focus on process rather than entities and services, this is an obvious characteristic in any modern IAMSystem^®. The now popular guideline “don't think like a institution – think like a customer”, can be serviced to boost sales and mitigate risk only by managing the relationship with the customer who may have numerous interactions with the AMC and number of products across the IM business domains. KYC and directives such as MiFID and the emerging AML controls that demand precise customer profiling also stress on the need for this characteristic.

Multi-Product, Multi Market / Venue and Multi-Currency inherent support. Historically, this has been the most difficult aspect to fulfill with a single system thus leading to complex multi-system approaches in IM; one would start with a system to sell funds (of course in single currency mode), then deploy another one for brokering local stocks, yet another to cover ‘foreign markets' with foreign currencies, and still more for time-deposits, asset management or custody services. If an AMC can fulfill in a single system most of its business requirements while covering across IM domains the multi-product, multi-market and multi-currency criterion, then with such a system like IAMSystem^® the AMC may achieve significant cost cutting, faster time to market for new products and services, increased cross selling and lower operational risk.

Front to Middle and Back Office coverage with Multi-Channel Service Delivery support. Again a characteristic rarely covered by a single system other than system like IAMSystem^® . It is evident that the Front Office, as a distribution oriented layer always has very different requirements from the process oriented Back Office, and is understandable why one would be tempted to seek different systems for these as well as for the elusive Middle Office focusing on rule setting, compliance, performance and risk. If however an integrated system is designed based on the Modularity and Layered characteristics, then it can provide as well different client (user terminal) types to support each layer and service delivery channel in the best manner, thus satisfying its distinct requirements. Once this characteristic is provided, it gives the IAMSystem^® an efficiency and safety boost similar to the multi product/market/currency elements.

System wide Compliance enabled. Even before the current crisis, the need for compliance rules settings was apparent, and now even more so. A powerful compliance rule engine and real time pre-emptive controls can safeguard customer investments as well as AMC exposure to risk for own and client products. Paired with risk management algorithms and performance measurement metrics, a system wide compliance controller will help in a complex product and services environment, where correlations are the rule rather than the exception.

Centralized Administration, Security, Audit and MIS. In an Integrated approach, compliance seriously benefits from the availability of all objects and processes to be used in rule setting. The same holds true for system administration, security, auditing and MIS reporting. Apart from the major cost saving in initial setup and maintenance of the aforementioned aspects, operational cost and risk are significantly reduced, since all related adjustments have immediate and consistent effect across all business domains. Of course this element should come with discreet and exact user role setting and Chinese Walls support

Multi-Entity deployment ability, including Multi-Lingual User interface and Timezone support. Last but not least, since the AMC has plans for international operations as and when SEC permits, for one or more of its investment management domains. This characteristic allows deploying by ‘copying' the core operations along with the system and then fine-tuning them to match local law, business practices and market peculiarities. The ‘global with local flavour' approach is served provided the IAMSystem^®; system is open and parametric enough to cover these differentiations in a controlled manner and with minimum customization.

All the factors discussed above, shall allow Alif AMC for cost efficient, controlled and fast paced expansion of business across IM domains ,locally and internationally, with a central design and administration but also local flexibility, nation and domain wise. Products can be cross offered, clients may be serviced through multiple channels and sales points and still have unified data, such as statement, performance and risk metrics and all this with better control over cost and risk by the AMC institution.