BST Awards 2022: Best integrated back-office platform—Temenos

Overview

Making real-time decisions based on up-to-date information, complying with industry regulations and reducing operational risk while simultaneously having the latest technologies are just some of the challenges currently facing buy-side firms. Multifonds offers a single, global platform to consolidate legacy systems, increase control and oversight, and reduce operational risk in a cost-efficient manner. 

What problem does it address?  

Multifonds’ Explainable AI (XAI)-enabled investment accounting platform supports traditional and alternative funds by combining asset servicing, position keeping, valuation and accounting functions for all structures of pooled vehicles and funds, across multiple jurisdictions. The firm’s transfer agency (TA) capabilities are designed to streamline the distribution chain by digitizing the onboarding process with a modern technology platform that supports efficiencies and reduces risk when combined with its data-driven investor servicing app.

Secret sauce 

Multifonds offers asset managers a single platform for all types of funds; integrated accounting book of record (Abor) and investment book of record (Ibor) views to provide services to the middle and back offices throughout each day; multi-currency capability for cash management, valuation and trade management; and exception-based capabilities for operational efficiency. The firm’s TA offering includes an app for distributors and retail investors that offers self or assisted onboarding, direct access to investments into funds, and review of the evolution of their portfolios.

Recent milestones

• Modernized architecture: Multifonds improved its Ibor functionality by including time-zone and timestamp support. 
• Single global platform: Multifonds entered the alternatives space and has enhanced its clients’ asset coverage by investing in new product types, such as insurance accounting, pensions, limited partnership accounting, ETF/PCF basket module extensions and ESG asset classification.
• Efficiency: Multifonds has optimized its operating models with software-as-a-service (SaaS) and managed services by incorporating Temenos’ core-banking technology.

Future objectives 

• Multifonds will continue to shorten its product-to-consumer path by enhancing its Investor App Portal and the Temenos Multifonds NAVigator, enabling its clients to have direct interaction with their consumers (investors, regulators and auditors, etc.).
• It will continue to invest in its middle-office capabilities.
• It will continue investing in the alternatives space, including enhancing its global investor servicing capabilities in private equity and hedge funds.

Why they won

Temenos’ Multifonds platform has repeated last year’s success by winning one of the most keenly contested of all 35 individual categories on offer in this year’s BST Awards. The Multifonds platform, acquired in 2015 by Geneva-based Temenos, is an all-singing, all-dancing back-office platform supporting intraday Abor and Ibor snapshots, multi-currency cash management, valuations and various trade management and exception-based functions. Winning a single BST Awards category is no easy task, but repeating that win is appreciably harder, which puts Temenos’ achievement into context.