Buy-Side Technology Awards 2015: Best Fund Administrator—SEI

The Oaks, Pa.-based firm, established all the way back in 1968, has proven year after year to be the leader among all fund administrators. Despite the continued dominance the firm has enjoyed, SEI continues to look for ways to evolve to better serve its substantial buy-side client base. 

This year, the firm continued to grow. SEI manages or administers $638 billion in mutual funds and pooled or separately managed assets, and serves over 7,000 clients.

Naturally, investment in the firm’s technology is a top priority. A major focus this year was SEI’s compliance component, one of four main areas under SEI’s regulatory and compliance services.

The goal was to create a global regulatory management framework that allows clients to oversee and orchestrate their compliance functions on a firm-wide basis, across different investment products and regulatory jurisdictions, all in one application.

A firm’s internal and outsourced compliance functions are centralized onto one management framework that is geared toward its different business activities. All of this is available on the manager dashboard of SEI’s global operating platform.

A firm’s internal and outsourced compliance functions are centralized onto one management framework that is geared toward its different business activities. All of this is available on the manager dashboard of SEI’s global operating platform.

The solution also offers a comprehensive compliance program assessment and gap analysis service where the user’s compliance program is compared to a list of regulations in the regions it operates. Recommendations are then made for the solutions that best fit the business.

A centralized management tool for internal and outsourced compliance functions has also been created. The configuration and rollout of compliance programs is assisted via this automated tool. A master compliance calendar, timelines and workflows around filing deadlines and employee trading and risk-assessment modules are also included. Compliance updates and program monitoring is continuous. A daily feed of global regulatory events and annual program reviews, based on the global inventory of regulatory requirements, are also included in SEI’s services.

The goal of the firm compliance component is, according to SEI, to minimize firm-level regulatory exposure, to optimize compliance resources, to enable enterprise-wide oversight and risk measurement, to support regulatory audits more efficiently, and to coordinate compliance functions for the administrator’s buy-side clients.