The partnership will bolster buy-side firms with improved productivity and portfolio returns, using cloud-based, AI-augmented workflows. In response to the evolving fixed income market, the partnership will see SimCorp offer a resilient and consolidated front office solution, for enhanced alpha generation and risk management. It also aims to address the integration headache and subsequent costs that many buy-side firms are facing, after years of accumulated third party tools in the front office.

In recent years, many buy-side institutions, have sought to tackle portfolio construction and optimization, via a combination of third party and proprietary portfolio management tools, in a bid to find elusive alpha. However, this has led to a minefield of operational woes, from manual data reconciliation to error prone upgrades and increased costs. To eliminate such pain points in the investment lifecycle, SimCorp is pre-integrating a choice of partner-based offerings, such as IntelliBonds, into its core platform, driving additional value to the investment process.

Built by bond professionals to meet the specific needs of portfolio managers and credit analysts, IntelliBonds’ Portfolio Assist AI-augmented platform offers a revolutionary approach to the current fixed income business model. Delivering optimized configuration, it adapts to clients’ specific investment strategies, with the added benefit of saving 20-30% on running costs. Using machine learning, with virtual AI assistants that test and monitor investment strategies, the platform incorporates superior analytics to boost alpha generation, with the creation of portfolio-specific trade ideas and risk warnings.

Through a set of APIs and secure cloud-based connectivity from SimCorp, IntelliBonds will deliver SimCorp clients with fully integrated workflows and processes, with a real-time dashboard of current holdings, and security and price master data for portfolio construction, rebalancing and optimization. This will be integrated directly into front office data flows, such as analytics, pre trade compliance and order execution within SimCorp Dimension, to deliver clients a robust front office solution for alpha generation.

Fintech partnerships, such as IntelliBonds, form an integral part of SimCorp’s Open Innovation program, offering clients a flexible approach to leveraging market innovation, and delivering the optionality required to address business objectives and remove operational burden. Alongside the selection of fintech partners from the industry and smoothly integrating them into SimCorp Dimension, the Open Innovation program also delivers expertise to guide clients on the best partner-fit, for their unique investment needs.

Anders Kirkeby, Head of Open Innovation, SimCorp comments: “We’re pleased to welcome IntelliBonds to the SimCorp ecosystem, and offering our clients a consolidated front office suite. The partnership is particularly timely given the lean margins many buy-side firms are running on, following challenging conditions this year. It is also significant for an industry largely operating remotely, and where internal innovation projects may be put on the backburner. Through partnerships, like IntelliBonds, SimCorp is able to deliver its clients integrated access to external innovation, together with sound advice on the best partner-fit for their business. This not only creates an opportunity to boost alpha, but also takes away the cost and risk of undertaking the research and procurement themselves, and that is an attractive proposition for many buy-side firms today."

Igor Tesinsky, Founder and CEO, IntelliBonds adds: “It’s great to form a partnership with such a well-known brand in the industry. We strongly believe that partnerships with established market players are the fastest way to deliver superior technology to market participants, in the current challenging market conditions. Margin erosion in the industry can’t be stopped without technological transformation, and IntelliBonds aims to be at the forefront of it. The impact of COVID-19, the low-yield environment and margin pressures have made internal innovation too risky or costly. To address this, partnerships between established solution providers, like SimCorp and IntelliBonds, can deliver superior technology to asset management clients with minimal risk, at the time when it’s needed most”.