Middle Office Outsourcing: Evaluating Suitability

The middle office of an investment management firm lives at the intersection of the business, technology, and operations.  Functionally, its capabilities include processing front office trades, reporting on settled cash and positions from the back office, and other administrative functions.  In addition to those core functions, the middle office can also include value-added services that can be considered key drivers of business success including: data management, risk measurement, performance attribution, and operations control.  With this broad range of influence, the middle office is now of more strategic importance to a firm than ever before but is also being examined more closely for bottom line results.

The question everyone is asking today is: “Is outsourcing all or part of our organization’s middle office right for us?”  This edition of Citisoft's Industry Perspectives presents both sides of the compelling outsourcing discussion occurring at the most senior levels of investment management firms.