Before sharing our thoughts on the year to come in Citisoft’s annual Outlook (stay tuned in January!), we are looking back at our most popular blogs from 2024. Based on interest from our readership, we’ve put together a countdown of the talking points that have shaped many investment operations conversations in 2024.
Through widely varying lenses, in one way or another, all our most-read blogs looked at technology’s potential to improve operational efficiency. The topic of much conversation in 2024, artificial intelligence garnered attention from our readers but with a focus on practical AI use cases in post-trade operations. Despite ceding its position as the innovation topic du jour to AI in recent years, blockchain’s use in the pairing of tokenisation and ABOR captured interest.
Two other entries in our countdown mark 2024 as a year where long-discussed concepts— and IBOR—finally began to deliver on the potential they’ve teased for the better part of 20 years. Though it also comments on a long-running conversation, our one remaining blog discusses a topic that will likely continue swing back and forth as the investment management solutions market continues its endless evolution: the business case for consolidated software platforms.
This is all to say, it won’t be the last we hear about these topics and trends that continue to shape our industry.
Snowflake was the subject of a great deal of buzz in 2024, but along with Azure and AWS, modern cloud data solutions don’t fundamentally differ from the data warehouses available 20 years ago. Instead of dramatic innovation in functionality, it’s been ease of use that has brought these platforms to the fore of conversations around data. Even still, it’s not really about technology. Instead, the focus for those aiming to derive value from their data should be on the oft-neglected data strategy. As Broc Kerr summarized: “A new cloud data platform won’t change anything if it’s used the same way as a data warehouse 20 years ago.”
Bringing a UK perspective (and baking metaphors) to the list, author Darren Glozier delves into the innovative world of blockchain-enabled tokenisation. Focusing on the critically important Accounting Book of Record (ABOR), the piece explores tokenisation’s potential to deliver operational efficiency and make reconciliation across multiple books of record a thing of the past. Inertia, reluctance, a lack of regulatory guidance, and tech debt are holding the industry back, but there are promising signs of change.
In his entry in this ongoing conversation, author Ken Barnet discusses how the investment management software industry is shifting towards consolidated platforms, offering benefits like cost efficiency, streamlined data management, and a unified source of truth. While narrowing gaps between specialized and integrated solutions make consolidation appealing, challenges such as implementation complexity, vendor risk, and organizational alignment must be carefully considered.
While the industry at large attempts to bridge the divide between the thrilling potential of AI and practical use cases, author Dhanya Dhiraj takes a focused, pragmatic approach, discussing artificial intelligence’s potential to revolutionize post-trade operations by enhancing efficiency, reducing errors, and improving decision-making. In fact, applications including trade matching, reconciliation, and regulatory reporting are already benefiting from AI's ability to process data, identify anomalies, and automate tasks. Though still early days, AI adoption in post-trade processes promises significant advantages for asset managers in improving operational efficiency and compliance.
And finally, our top spot goes to a blog from author Mike Maltby. First looking at the obstacles that have stifled IBOR initiatives, the piece goes on to discuss how advancements in custodial services, OMS vendor technology, and cloud-based data management have IBOR poised to finally deliver on its decades-old promise of a single source of the truth. Looking at the year ahead, I’d wager that this won’t be the last stop on our quest for efficiency and clarity!