Storebrand Asset Management Completes Front to Back Consolidation Drive with SimCorp's Front Office and Fund Solutions

Press Release

• Storebrand has already seen annual savings of EUR 1 million from decommissioned systems, replaced by SimCorp Dimension.
  
  
• Dedicated consolidation drive wins Storebrand the annual SimCorp Award at this year’s International User Community Meeting (IUCM) in Milan.  

SimCorp, a leading provider of investment management solutions and services to the global financial services industry, announces today that Storebrand Asset Management, Norway’s largest private asset manager with EUR 71 billion in assets under management, now completes its strategic consolidation project, with the addition of SimCorp’s front office and fund management solutions. The new solutions integrate with Storebrand Asset Management’s existing use of SimCorp Dimension in the middle and back office, to provide a holistic, single system approach across the firm. The newly implemented front office solutions enable Storebrand Asset Management to automate and standardize investment processes front to back, significantly reducing costs, while ensuring the scalability necessary for future growth in a competitive market.

In 2016, following a successful period of growth, Storebrand Asset Management identified the need for a unified, operational infrastructure, selecting SimCorp Dimension as its core engine. Within the front office, Storebrand’s fixed income, currency and equities teams are now live on SimCorp Dimension, running both active and passive investments across the entire range of financial instruments. Establishing a single platform from front to back has also delivered the scalability needed for further expansion and growth, such as the recent acquisition of Norwegian active management firm, Skagen, which quadrupled Storebrand Asset Management’s share of the Norwegian private funds savings market from 4 to 17%.

SimCorp’s front office solution replaces a large number of diverse, fragmented front office systems, custom built applications, excel models and manual processes that have accumulated over the years. The highly automated front office solution covers portfolio as well as order management and is seamlessly integrated with SimCorp’s Investment Book of Record (IBOR) and with key functions across the investment lifecycle.

The consolidation strategy has significantly saved on operational costs and been key in optimizing the firms’ daily investment activities. This includes risk management and post trade compliance, where Storebrand Asset Management manages over 6000 compliance rules every day. As a result of the consolidation, Storebrand Asset Management has decommissioned a number of systems, including external risk and OMS/EMS systems, saving EUR 1 million annually. Further, the replacement of manual solutions and spreadsheets with SimCorp’s automated Compliance Manager has resulted in a 58% reduction in post trade compliance breaks.

In parallel with implementing SimCorp’s front office solution, Storebrand Asset Management has also recently gone into successful production with SimCorp Dimension’s fund administration solution, enabling it to move from five different fund configurations to one common, integrated setup. As a key feature, this solution has introduced share classes with the option of different fee rates, fee setups and currencies enabling Storebrand Asset Management to better serve its wide client base, and meet current and future market requirements, including more granular regulatory reporting.

The adoption of SimCorp’s fund solution has delivered several key benefits across the organization:

• Increased Straight Through Processing (STP) for all funds, resulting in automated pricing process and increased data accuracy
• Significant reduction in time spent on error management
• Faster time to market, with the ability to deliver new share classes live in less than 24 hours
• Simplified global expansion, with scalable setup and provision of multiple currencies to serve global client base
• Standardized infrastructure minimizes operational maintenance and dependency on key staff.

As a result of Storebrand Asset Management’s strategic commitment to consolidation and resulting achievements, it was today honored with the SimCorp Award 2018, at SimCorp’s International User Community Meeting, taking place in Milan.

Erik Kaland, COO of Storebrand Asset Management comments: “In a relatively short period of time, SimCorp has helped to completely transform our front office and fund platforms, successfully replacing our legacy systems with a far superior and automated platform, across front to back. With a more standardized configuration and centralized architecture, we have not only significantly reduced operational risk and cost of ownership, but equally important, positioned ourselves strongly, as we continue to seek new market and growth opportunities.”

Klaus Holse, CEO of SimCorp, comments: “Storebrand Asset Management is a prime example of the challenge faced by many buy side firms, where historical reliance on best-of-breed and legacy technology stand in the way of future business growth. Having realized the operational and strategic benefits of a consolidated model, Storebrand has demonstrated how to take effective action and break away from the status quo of ineffective technology. The achievements they have gained across the investment value chain provide a strong competitive advantage and make Storebrand Asset Management a well-deserved winner of the SimCorp Award 2018.”

Enquiries regarding this announcement should be addressed to:
Mittal Shah, SimCorp UK/North America +44 207 397 8072 mittal.shah@simcorp.com
Anders Crillesen, SimCorp Corporate Communications, +45 3544 6474 anders.crillesen@simcorp.com

About SimCorp
SimCorp provides integrated, best-in-class investment management solutions to the world’s leading asset managers, fund managers, asset servicers, pension and insurance funds, wealth managers and sovereign wealth funds. Whether deployed on premise or as an ASP solution, its core system, SimCorp Dimension, supports the entire investment value chain and range of instruments, all based on a market-leading IBOR. SimCorp invests more than 20% of its annual revenue in R&D, helping clients develop their business and stay ahead of ever-changing industry demands. Listed on NASDAQ Copenhagen, SimCorp is a global company, regionally covering all of Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.simcorp.com

About Storebrand
Storebrand Asset Management is a multi-boutique manager and provider of scalable, sustainable solutions and thematic funds. Through the brands Storebrand Funds, SPP funds, Delphi Funds and Skagen Funds, we manage a total of 716 billion Norwegian kroner.