Morphing IBOR Into Something Broader

Earlier this year, Inside Reference Data considered the Investment Book of Record (IBOR) as a component of data governance. However, a new report on IBOR by the Celent consultancy positions IBOR as more than just a piece of the data management puzzle, but a framework unto itself.

Applying service-oriented architecture design principles makes an IBOR framework "cohesive," writes James Wolstenhome, a Celent analyst who authored the report, "Inside The Matrix: The Future of IBOR." Wolstenhome proposes an IBOR Services Matrix method for working with an IBOR, and this isn't the same as just layering multiple books of records together, he writes.

The IBOR Services Matrix Wolstenhome describes can operate either with multiple front-end sources, such as front-end trading order management systems or execution management systems, or analytical systems for risk, compliance and performance attribution, with all these sources feeding into an IBOR. The same IBOR, which can be used for portfolio management, would also be fed by external data providers and reference data reconcilers.

Another version of this matrix approach, which Wolstenhome calls a "distributed global IBOR architecture," puts the IBOR side by side with the external data providers and reference data reconcilers. The analytical systems, front-end trading systems and portfolio management systems either link together or into the IBOR part that parallels the data providers and reconcilers.

The point of either of these architectures is to insulate the matrix from the data layer, according to Wolstenhome. The benefit for an asset management firm setting up such an IBOR Services Matrix is to better support investment across products globally, while complying with both regulatory and investment directives, all while offering transparency to clients, Wolstenhome states.

Wolstenhome and Celent's report advances a new way of thinking about IBOR, which had previously been seen mainly as a central data warehouse. IBOR could come to mean a more sophisticated way of thinking about data operations management.