"FE fundinfo is a game-changer for the investment management community"

Liam Healy, CEO at FE fundinfo, speaks with AGEFI Luxembourg

Mr. Healy. Could you first tell us a little about your background?

I am the Chief Executive Officer of FE fundinfo, leading a fantastic team of over 1,200 professionals at a global leader in investment product information and technology for the fund management industry. Since joining in September 2023, it’s been an incredibly energising experience to listen to our clients, our employees, and the market to drive the agenda for our organisation across 15 countries, and connecting investment products with distribution networks across Europe, the UK and Asia Pacific.

Before joining FE fundinfo, I spent 15 years building successful Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses across Europe, Asia and the US. My track record is all about delivering client value through smart go-to-market strategies (GTM), cutting-edge products, and strategic acquisitions. Most recently, I led the international business growth at Diligent, a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS company.

Briefly introduce FE fundinfo

FE fundinfo is a game-changer for the investment management community. Our suite of services and solutions offer value in three key areas. First, we help drive growth of assets under management for product manufacturers, assets under advice for advisory markets, and returns for investors. Second, we help provide operational efficiency and cost management for both manufacturers and distributors of financial products.

Finally, we support our clients’ efforts to manage risk and compliance in the geographies they operate and want to operate. We are the trusted source for providing and maintaining high-quality information and intelligence, powerful technology and services, and insightful research for a global network of experts. Over 1,000 fund managers, including 40 of the top 50 global fund managers along with hundreds of thousands of investment professionals trust and rely on our offerings to drive growth, reduce costs, and manage risk for over 100,000 active funds and more than 250,000 share classes.

What are your main missions and areas of expertise?

We are a global financial information and technology company that serves the investment management community. Our core mission is to connect investment products through asset managers to distribution networks to drive growth, reduce costs, and manage risk. For example, we empower our clients to streamline their middle and back-office operations by offering intelligent services, including:

• Fund data management: We ensure the accuracy and timeliness of fund data, which is critical for regulatory compliance and investor reporting.
• Regulatory compliance: We help asset managers navigate the complex world of financial regulations, including those related to AML and KYC.
• Investor communications: We disclose fund information to investors via different channels.
• Distribution of core fund information: We help asset managers distribute their fund information to a global audience through various channels.

Providing these services and connecting asset managers to a highly distributed set of investment markets enables asset managers to focus on what they do best: manage money. We aim to be THE trusted partner to the investment management community across the entire lifecycle.

What areas of expertise are your customers most looking for today?

Incredible and unique market pressures in the asset management industry mean clients are looking for a partner that helps them collect, store, verify/validate, enrich, manufacture, and distribute investment product information with the goal of enabling growth, reducing costs, and managing risk. With FE fundinfo we provide them with a solution that brings together static and dynamic data and documents in one place. We ensure the highest levels of integrity and reduced error rates, including quantitative and qualitative ratings enrichment.

On top of that core, our stratified offerings solve challenges related to the entire manufacturing product lifecycle from registration to report production and on to fee calculation and distribution. We publish once to a highly distributed geographical network, which takes into consideration the unique investment requirements of each regional market.

FE fundinfo acquired Fundsquare in 2022. What did this acquisition bring to your group?

The acquisition strengthened our position to respond to market needs across different geographies and deliver better services in Luxembourg, which is arguably the centre of fund excellence in Europe. By integrating our fund data and intelligence stored in Luxembourg, it has allowed us to bring added value on regulatory filing and expertise with the National Competent Authorities (NCAs). We have further expanded our data coverage and management capabilities, delivering a golden source of fund data that feeds into core distribution operations, and expanding our already established distribution network.

What did this acquisition bring to Luxembourg?

Luxembourg already represents our largest office in Continental Europe; however, with the acquisition, we can offer stable and scalable state-of-the-art technology. Our service offering has expanded and now covers a full suite of services, including product creation and regulatory filing, document and template production and dissemination and disclosure of information. We expect our expanded services to attract even more business to Luxembourg.

Additionally, through a consolidated network of counterparties we now have access to a consolidated database of funds covering the whole of Europe instead of just Luxembourg when Fundsquare was a standalone entity.

Following the acquisition, we now combine the expertise of our teams from different markets, which fosters a more vibrant innovation environment within FE fundinfo. I expect it to lead to the development of new solutions and services specifically targeted towards the European market.

What are the current challenges in the fund industry?

Conversations with clients late last year and early this year have raised the same few challenges related to growth, cost, and risk. They seeking help in addressing the complexities of cross-border fund distribution and local market requirements while meeting evolving regulatory requirements through the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) and ESMA in Europe.

We see a growing need to respond to increasing margin compression with creative cost-reduction strategies to achieve operational efficiencies and resilience. One way to achieve it – and our services are particularly handy here – is to evolve from siloed and decentralised support functions to streamlined end-to-end data management and workflows.

Lastly, we see a growing demand to integrate sustainability factors in fund distribution, from the consolidation of ESG data to scalable investor communications.

How do you see the fund market evolving today?

In addition to the ongoing topics, including providing investors with transparency, meeting increasingly complex compliance regulations, growing demand for sustainable and ESG-focused investment options and digitalisation, I see three additional drivers shaping the fund market today:

The first driver is the implementation of ESAP (European Single Access Point) which will shape the fund industry and how information will be reported to NCAs. At FE fundinfo, we directly engage with the NCAs to facilitate the forthcoming changes and offer a global platform for our clients’ multi-jurisdictional activities.

The second driver is technological advancements. There is a general push for digitalisation across the board, not just industry players but also including the regulatory bodies like the CSSF who have introduced their new API for report transmissions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics are increasingly being used for portfolio analysis, risk management, and investor communication. We need to ensure organisations are supported in any digitisation process, a recent example of this is helping our clients migrate and onboard to e-file, our proprietary transmission and communication platform.

The third driver is the consolidations we’re seeing in the fund industry as smaller players merge or are acquired by larger ones. This is stemming from the need for scale and resources to comply with regulations and compete effectively.

What are your main objectives and ambitions for 2024?

In 2024 we’re adapting our solutions to meet the evolving market needs. We are empowering asset managers by streamlining their middle and back office operations to offer intelligent services. We hear our clients’ challenges and are responding with solutions to support cost reduction, regulatory compliance and effective distribution – working closely with industry working groups, regulatory bodies and NCAs.

One of the key solutions we’ve developed is our proprietary transmission and communication platform called e-file, that has been updated to be fully compatible with the recently introduced strict encryption requirements from the CSSF. The platform facilitates data and document submission, thus enabling secure and automated reporting to the Luxembourg authorities. It also provides approved templates and file packages that can facilitate client communication with other regulators across Europe.

Another of our key projects for 2024 is to connect additional products to the Fund Information Hub. FIH is built on open architecture technology, enabling greater connectivity between insourced and outsourced functions, processes and systems, thus improving the user experience and client value. It’s our response to fund managers’ ever-increasing challenges related to fund data volumes and the reporting obligations draining time and resources.

In 2024 we also continue our organic and inorganic growth path to further develop the scope of our services and geographical footprint, adding value to our clients wherever they are. To sum it all up, FE fundinfo is on a mission to make the fund industry better connected and better informed.

Luxembourg is a crucial market for us, and the completed migration of our Fundsquare clients onto the FE fundinfo infrastructure will enable customers to benefit from the most advanced technological solutions and an even broader set of available services.

This article first appeared in AGEFI Luxembourg on 18 March 2024 (page 35)