The new offering is based on State Street's successful outsourcing platform, which supports many of the world's leading asset managers.

"Asset managers are confronting a range of challenges from heightened complexity as well as data and reporting needs, to regulatory changes that put added pressure on their existing platforms," said Jeff Conway, executive vice president and global head of State Street's Investment Manager Services team.

A recent State Street survey of more than 160 boutique managers globally, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, revealed concerns about their readiness for industry challenges. The survey is highlighted in State Street's latest Vision paper, "Empowering Boutiques: The Rise of the Specialist Manager."
According to the research, one-third of managers stated that their operational and IT structure needed improvement, and 21 percent went so far as to say it could hamper their ability to achieve their strategic goals over the next two years. Forty-two percent of respondents see achieving sufficient scale with their in-house systems as a major data management challenge, while 22 percent reported that their ability to capture and report regulatory data needed improvement.

State Street's new investment servicing solution, which is available globally, includes transaction management, record-keeping, corporate action processing, data management, reconciliation, pricing and information delivery.
The service solution's short implementation timeline — four to six months — may lead to lower project cost and faster time to market for investment managers. Maintenance of system infrastructure and software is handled by State Street, and is further optimized by its scalable servicing model.

Conway added, "We have a strong track record of providing investment manager operations outsourcing services to support the growth of asset managers and incrementally add value as their needs evolve. Our industry-leading investment operations service aims to provide small and mid-sized investment managers with a scalable, lower risk, lower-cost technology option than building their own system or buying software. We look forward to partnering with these clients to support their growth over time."