Investment Ops Transformation: Reimagining Operational Workflows for Asset Class Convergence
In the first part of this two-part series, Investment Ops Transformation: Building Resilience for Asset Class Convergence, we outlined why asset managers are re-evaluating their operating models and how modern technology is helping to adapt to asset class convergence by containing the complexity and costs. Now, we are going deeper into the modern investment operating model playbook, detailing the part each link in the end-to-end tech platform plays in the reimagined operational workflows.
Change is once again in the air for capital markets. Retail investors are gaining access to private market assets and institutional grade investments while other policy moves have widened the potential for digital assets to gain ground. The evolution of investor preferences toward ETFs, private markets, bespoke structures, and general transparency have reinforced the need for sounder operational infrastructure.
The proliferation of customer-facing and internal AI tools will impact how the daily business of planning, portfolio management, and client engagement is conducted. Let’s get closer to how asset managers can make their lives easier and businesses grow while managing emerging risk.
Automate workflows via transformed data flows
Once a firm has modernized data infrastructure with an investment data platform, it can achieve centralized holdings management, aka a single source of data truth. Built-in models handle the ingestion and normalization of datasets from all lifecycle events, reconciling differences in industry classifications. Our Aquata platform, for example, has the capability to identify common data entities and their relationships across systems, normalize multiple models, and map existing data structures to a unified framework. This is the key to standardization, which ensures that data is stored in a consistent format. As soon as accurate, timely data can flow freely throughout the organization, a firm has the expressway on which to drive much faster workflows.
For example, with a unified data management framework, firms can enjoy automated resolution of errors, on-time reporting, and avoid resource-intensive reconciliation breaks across custodians, administrators, and counterparties.
Rapid reconciliation in modern investment operations
The central tenet of automating investment ops lies in replacing as many manual, error-prone tasks with streamlined, repeatable processes as possible. In reconciliation, data can be in different formats or at different levels of granularity, making matching difficult. Plus, if using manual reconciliation processes, you have a high chance of duplicated efforts and human errors, like fat fingering a decimal point mistake that can cascade into bad analyses all over the firm.
Automated solutions offer deep granularity for efficient root cause identification and configurable matching logic across diverse data types and counterparties. Instead of a traditional "N-way reconciliation" approach, which can lead to a loss of detail by forcing data to the lowest level of granularity, especially for complex instruments, end-to-end ops platforms like our Opterra platform reconcile individual components.
Opterra includes multiple types of reconciliations tailored for specific asset classes and an "any versus any" catch-all. This allows for the efficiency of multiple reconciliations all at once without losing crucial detail. Fixing an error in the central source corrects it for all related reconciliations. Modern reconciliation tools enable reconciliation of not only line items but also their individual components. This is crucial for complex asset classes like derivatives. Really, the type of data doesn’t matter.
Moreover, AI tools can connect to all necessary data platforms, download a full report, and provide transparent disclosure of where the numbers originate.i Faster, automated reconciliation allows firms to close their books more quickly, whether it's for a daily, monthly, or quarterly NAVs. However, in the T+1 era and the coming T+0 era, data reconciliation will need to happen in real-time to flag and resolve discrepancies.
Streamlining trade processing in T+1 and T+0 eras
Legacy infrastructure has trouble keeping pace with today’s accelerating settlement timings. I recently noted in an article that the US T+1 migration’s “shorter settlement window exposed a deep technology divide” and made the limitations of legacy technology that much more acute.
Manual affirmations, batch systems, and error-prone corporate action processing increase operational costs and raise counterparty risk. Aside from real-time reconciliations, automated corporate actions and straight-through-processing can contribute to efficiencies in trade processing. Automated updates ensure positions and entitlements are processed accurately, often the night before ex-date. Positions and balances are updated continuously without manual adjustments. This is what investment ops efficiency and management optimization looks like.
Liquidity management across public and private markets
A contemporary investment ops system, above all, provides cohesion between the traditional front-, middle- and back-office functions. It understands and supports the interdependency of systems and processes, creating value-added optimizations for each department. The public-private asset-class convergence has caused some vexing headaches for liquidity management. As more private market investments swirl into the portfolios, firms must find ways to precisely track liquidity and execute accurate valuations; and it needs to be done not just once a quarter, but constantly. It’s in everybody’s interest to see into opaque asset classes.
A recent global survey of GPs revealed that LPs are “demanding stronger benchmarking, risk attribution and reporting from their GPs.” GPs with more than $5 billion AUM said that managing investor expectations and reporting requirements was their top challenge, neck and neck with challenges in fundraising.ii Optimized capital efficiency and liquidity risk management are paramount.
Firms have an urgent need for fluid responsiveness in cash management to be able to jump on tactical opportunities. As my colleague put it, “Those that recognize cash management as a performance lever will gain an edge over those who still consider it a perfunctory task.” For example, missing money market fund (MMF) cut-offs mean you miss out on same-day yield and have idle capital overnight. Opterra optimizes the cash sweep function across all accounts and currencies, replacing the manual reconciliation and determination of how much cash to invest.
“This is just the opening act of the great convergence. The industry’s giants have led the charge in forming strategic partnerships and stitching together integrated offerings. There is still a long tail of smaller managers that lack the resources to compete at scale across both domains. These firms may benefit the most from this convergence, but they have yet to partner their way into meaningful capability sets. Scale is optional; access is not.”
Living at the margins to simulate, replicate, and optimize
Firms can predict margin calls, optimize collateral, and reduce counterparty risks with in-house margin replication. Opterra’s treasury tools can replicate complex financing charge calculations in-house, so firms can predict the margin calls before they are received and estimate the margin impact of upsizing or downsizing existing position movements. This helps firms claw back excess margin calls and reduce counterparty exposure.
Moreover, advanced margin simulation calculators enable asset managers to run daily what-if analyses on existing or hypothetical positions to understand potential impacts of transactions or position movements. These kinds of automated tools offer substantial value in helping managers take a more proactive risk management approach when using leverage and operating in the complex world of convergence.
Our purpose-built treasury solution helps firms maintain a house view of not just exposures but also margin and financing charges. That requires a consistent source of investment data that integrates seamlessly with portfolio management, trading and order management, and risk systems.
Modern investment ops books of record
A key pillar of investment operations transformation is a reimagining of how to achieve a consolidated view of holdings. With multi-currency, multi-asset views of investments, firms can track multiple versions of gain/loss reporting across the enterprise in the same system. This both enhances transparency in client reporting and generates crucial insights, fostering strategic financial decisions based on accurate and comprehensive information.
A universal book of record (such as Arcesium's UBOR) is the modern alternative to the traditional way many firms maintain separate investment and accounting records. Future-forward firms have enterprise-wide tracking and analysis, dynamic currency conversions, and customizable portfolio metrics that offer intra-day access and insights. Their UBOR, combining IBOR and ABOR, supports the most complex portfolios spanning public and private markets on one platform.
The modern investment operating model
Investment operations, reengineered for immensely sophisticated financial markets, are the engines of institutional resilience and competitiveness. The only constant today is change, and systems must be ready for a barrage of change, whether it be regulations, new structures, instruments, dynamics, or macroeconomic forces. A partner and vice-chair of Oliver Wyman recently said on CNBC that a “wave of consolidation” could be rolling through the asset management industry with the middle ground squeezed by things like private markets and spending for AI.iv
Automated transaction processing, advanced reconciliation tools, treasury and margin optimization, and UBOR are powerful levers to not only save time but also drive returns. When thinking about reimagined investment ops, you are really thinking about front-to-back ops in their entirety. It’s all about getting more granular, speeding workflows, freeing the flow of data, and scaling fast. The future is now, and staying competitive requires more than just incremental upgrades; it calls for a holistic infrastructure designed for efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.
5 Key Takeaways
Q1: Why must asset managers transform investment operations now?
A: Convergence of asset classes, tighter margins, and evolving investor demands require modernized ops to reduce complexity and costs.
Q2: How does data infrastructure support investment ops?
A: A unified investment data platform standardizes inputs, automates workflows, and enables faster, more accurate reporting across systems.
Q3: What role does automation play in reconciliation?
A: Automated, yet granular, reconciliation reduces manual errors, ensures real-time exception handling, and streamlines complex asset-class reporting.
Q4: How can investment ops enhance trade and liquidity management?
A: Straight-through processing, automated corporate actions, and cash sweep tools improve efficiency, reduce risk, and maximize capital use.
Q5: What’s the long-term impact of modernized investment operations?
A: Future-ready ops build resilience, scalability, and investor trust, critical for navigating T+1 settlement and the “great convergence.”
Authored By
Rochelle Glazman
Rochelle is responsible for enabling go-to-market and growth strategies across sales, marketing, product, and client engagement. Before taking on this role, Rochelle was a Senior Pre-Sales Consultant, engaging with clients and prospects across the financial services industry. Prior to joining Arcesium, Rochelle spent over five years at BlackRock Aladdin servicing institutional asset managers and leading several implementation projects across North and South America. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in economics.
Share This post
[i] BCG, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/ai-next-wave-of-transformation
[ii] MSCI, The 2025 General Partner Survey Research Paper, June 12, 2025. https://www.msci.com/research-and-insights/paper/the-2025-general-partner-survey
[iii] McKinsey, Asset management 2025: The great convergence
September 18, 2025 | Report. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/asset-management-2025-the-great-convergence
[iv] CNBC, September 25, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcSK73O_NhQ
Subscribe Today
No spam. Just the latest releases and tips, interesting articles, and exclusive interviews in your inbox every week.
