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Asset Management

The asset management industry is growing at a robust pace and undergoing constant change. To survive in this fast-paced environment amid fierce competition, companies must be able to provide innovative solutions that generate high returns while complying with stringent regulations. At Equinox Consulting, we leverage our consultants’ business expertise to help clients meet the challenges of this high-potential, yet complex industry.

Promoting new growth drivers while ensuring regulatory compliance

The asset management industry is marked by:

• Sustained growth in assets under management, which jumped over 17% in France in 2006 to nearly €2.5 trillion, according to AMF (the French securities market regulator)
• Maturity, as evidenced by the current move toward internationalization and numerous company restructurings
• Evolving market players and products, with new competitors such as investment banks, and increasingly innovative, complex financial products
• Substantial regulatory changes designed to protect shareholders (MiFID, the E.U. Prospectus Directive, etc.)

Asset management professionals must address the following two major issues if they are to meet these challenges and take advantage of new growth drivers:

• Enhance their processes and resource allocation to better predict market changes and develop the appropriate responses
• Ensure compliance with EU and broader international regulations

Helping clients build, implement, and improve their processes and organizational structure

Equinox Consulting works with clients to manage organizational change with a focus on the following issues:
Process and structure optimization

• Organizational and cost-control projects; business process outsourcing
• High-added-value business models to leverage new growth drivers in asset management
• Information flow optimization, including operational process overhauls; standardization; and full STP implementation
• IT tools to manage outsourcers and monitor quality
• Processes to calculate returns and return allocation for asset manager reports
• Fast-close services for financial filing requirements

Regulatory compliance

• Applications for securities regulator approvals
• Service-level agreements
• Business continuity plans
• Regulatory risks arising from organizational changes
• Upgrades for electronic document management (EDM) applications and software used to generate prospectuses
• Processes to manage and monitor fund management fees and commission sharing

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Sample projects

Prospectuses

In France, the AMF’s new Regulation 2005-02 dated January 25, 2005 changed the information required in prospectuses. Pursuant to the new regulation, investment funds must now provide more detailed, accurate information.

Equinox Consulting works with asset management firms to generate and update their investment fund prospectuses.

Equinox’s knowledge in this industry allows us to add value in the following areas:

• Selecting the best EDM applications and procedures to generate prospectuses
• Integrating applications into existing IT systems, based on Equinox consultants’ end-to-end project management skills from needs analysis to change management
• Developing the strategy and processes to adapt prospectuses to the specific regulations and features of individual investment funds

Outsourcer expenses
Asset management companies now outsource some of their operations (middle-office processing, asset valuations, etc.), effectively turning them into cost sources that must be monitored.

Equinox Consulting helps clients select applications to manage the expenses and billing related to custodian and valuation services.

Equinox Consulting also adds value to asset managers’ operations by:

• Determining how a firm’s controls are organized and developing procedures that meet managers’ needs.