Submitter
Ram Nagappan, Chief Information Officer
Company
BNY Mellon’s Pershing
Industry
Financial Services
Business Challenge
Understanding a firm’s true business performance requires the ability to separate market conditions from investor contributions and withdrawals—which are ultimately the most important predictor of how well a business is positioned to achieve its long-term goals. Net asset flows is a commonly used key performance indicator (KPI) that allows firms to assess business performance irrespective of market conditions. What sounds easy comes with layers of complexity. There are hundreds of types of money and asset movements, not all of which represent pure investor contributions and withdrawals. A thorough analysis is required to identify the set of activity types that would qualify for inclusion in a net asset flow KPI.
Analytics Solution
BNY Mellon’s Pershing developed a new dashboard tool that allows its clients to both measure overall business performance as well as identify trends within their business through the net asset flows KPI. Results are displayed graphically for easy interpretation. The dashboard supports self-service exploration—firms can drill into different peaks or valleys in the data and identify the source of the movement. The dashboard also lets users customize the calculation itself, deciding what types of activity make up their net asset flow calculation. Lastly, the dashboard allows clients to examine flows between brokerage and advisory accounts, by investment professional performance, qualified vs. non-qualified, and several other views.
Impact
Upon implementation of the solution, clients are now able to more accurately and efficiently assess overall business performance. They are also able to measure trends within their business, and make more evidence-based decisions when selecting investment managers or compensating their advisors for asset gathering. Additionally, the graphical display of the information within the dashboard, along with the data exploration capabilities, allows clients to diagnose trends within their business to answer the question, “why did it happen?”