Nearly 80% of fund administrators are concerned with the manual process in current use for reporting and documenting fund information, according to a survey recently released by data management firm
These administrators felt the manual process hinders their ability to control errors, and 77% said they were concerned that the manual data entry affected their ability to meet deadlines.
In response, 25% are hoping to unify their funds administration into one database within the next year. The survey interviewed 115 C-level and other management professionals.
Fund administration must prepare financial statements, pricing reports, investor marketing reports, and a variety of other documents. Despite all of this paperwork, and the increased regulation and increased supply of investments products within the industry, manual spreadsheets continue to be the statute of documentation.
Approximately 26% of managers said they rely on spreadsheets for more than half of their fund administration processes and another 23% said they rely on them for 26% to 50% of processes.
Overall, the survey found that fund administrators desire to automate fund administration to minimize errors, 84%; control administration costs, 54%; improve data integrity, 72%; increase scalability of operations, 71%; and allow staff to spend more time on strategic issues, 72%.
