If anybody doubted that the managed accounts business was about to take off, those doubts evaporated with the news today that the acquisitive and ambitious fund administrator BISYS is looking to get into the market.
BISYS Fund Services has created a business unit to provide processing solutions specifically for separate account investment managers and distribution organizations.
“BISYS offers the broadest suite of investment services available from a single provider and we continue to expand these services,” says Bill Tomko, president of BISYS Investment Services. “Our development of a comprehensive solution for the separately managed accounts arena is a natural extension of our existing processing capabilities, and we believe our full range of back-office and distribution solutions will be competitively distinct in the separately managed account (SMA) marketplace.”
Kevin M. Keefe, senior vice president of BISYS Separate Account Services, will direct the development, delivery, and ongoing servicing functions of BISYS’s SMA outsourcing solution. “We are confident that growth in the SMA market will continue to be strong. Our projections, combined with our understanding of asset manager needs, clearly justified our decision to augment BISYS’ operational expertise and processing functionality with sophisticated SMA capabilities. We expect the resulting offering will address SMA product and service requirements in a meaningful way, and will provide managers and sponsors with a more effective alternative for resolving the operational challenges inherent in the SMA arena,” explains Keefe.
BISYS’s SMA service offering will include account administration, portfolio accounting and administration, settlement services, billing solutions, and comprehensive reporting functionality.
BISYS says it is in the process of establishing strategic alliances with leading technology and service providers to provide certain components of the overall service. These relationships aim to provide BISYS with advanced SMA functionality, such as overlay portfolio management capabilities and related imaging and workflow technologies.
“Our successful product development process culminates in BISYS’ ability to provide services that extend from our clients’ front-offices straight through their back-offices,” says George Evans, executive vice president of business development for BISYS Investment Services. “As the investment advisory community continues to embrace separately managed account offerings, we believe our capabilities will be a compelling alternative for existing and new market entrants.”
BISYS says the SMA offering will be an extension of its investment product suite that includes services for 401(k) plans, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, and variable annuities.