Four to One: India's Largest Fund Overhauls Systems

India’s largest bank-sponsored mutual fund has replaced four different front, middle and back office systems with one.

SBI Mutual Fund, a joint venture between State Bank of India and Société Générale Asset Management of France, said it installed the Intellect Mutual product of the Intellectual GUB suite of software to run an integrated front-, middle- and back-office system to manage its mutual funds The firm said $8.2 billion and 6 million customers are invested in its portfolio of funds.

The new system, implemented by Laser Soft Infosystems Ltd. will handle more activity with "reduced manual interventions" and better controls for regulatory compliance, SBI said.

At SBI, Intellect Mutual is replacing four different applications: its back office & fund accounting system, its front office system, its cash management system and its risk analytics. Each of those were different technology platforms, supplied by different vendors. Additionally, hardware infrastructure will also be centralized as part of this implementation. With the new system, data will be entered once, not entered at both the front and back ends.

There is also a moduel that makes sure that record-keeping incorporates all current regulatory needs.

"We believe that this new technology platform will lead to enhanced productivity, reduce cost of operations and help us manage our regulatory environment better,” said SBI Funds Management vice president Subhojit Roy.