BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Charles River Development (Charles River), a front- and middle-office investment management solutions provider, today announced that Sp-Fund Management, the asset management arm of Finland’s Säästöpankki (the Savings Banks), has selected the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS) to support its new in-house asset management operations in Helsinki. SP-Fund Management will benefit from automated portfolio management, order and execution management and compliance monitoring throughout the trade lifecycle across its equity, fixed income, derivatives, money markets and FX mutual funds. Sp-Fund Management recently brought its asset management operations in house, and the implementation of Charles River IMS will support an aggressive growth strategy over the next two years.
“We recognized that the launch of our in-house asset management operations gave us a unique opportunity to select the right investment management system and to adopt the best processes from the start,” said Hannu Ruotsalainen, managing director, Sp-Fund Management. “With Charles River IMS, we have a single consolidated platform that will not only support our business starting out, but also provide the functionality and scalability we will need as we increase our mutual fund client base, and diversify into other markets.”
Charles River IMS will help Sp-Fund Management streamline workflows, reduce operational risk, and provide a complete audit trail for reporting purposes. Charles River Manager automates portfolio management for large numbers of portfolios, and Charles River Trader provides comprehensive order management and execution management in a single combined OEMS platform. Charles River Compliance will automate SP-Fund Management’s compliance throughout the trade lifecycle, allowing Sp-Fund Management to handle increasing volume and regulations.
“Asset managers are looking to improve investment efficiencies and lower costs with a single enterprise solution,” said Tom Driscoll, managing director global, Charles River Development. “Charles River IMS helps companies, like Sp-Fund Management, streamline operations, reduce costs and lower risk. This will allow SP-Fund Management to focus on its core business activities with confidence that its front and middle office can scale and adapt as it grows and diversifies”.
About Sp-Fund Management
Sp-Fund Management Company provides Säästöpankki (the Savings Banks) and its customers with competitive mutual funds, permitting the Savings Banks to serve their customers with in-house saving in mutual funds. The company promotes long-term saving in the Savings Bank Group and serves as the investment markets expert unit for the Savings Banks, with an eye to enhancing the degree of financial expertise and market know-how in the banks.
At year-end 2011, Sp-Fund Management administered 16 mutual funds. Two new funds were launched on the market during the review period.
In 2010, the investments of the funds administered by Sp-Fund Management Company were managed by SEB Gyllenberg Asset Management. The Board of Directors of Sp-Fund Management Company resolved in May 2010 to establish an in-house asset management unit to attend to the funds' portfolio management. As of February 2011, the unit assumed responsibility for the funds administered by the company which make direct investments in the securities markets.
Sp-Fund Management Company had a staff of 16 in 2011, and its managing director is Mr Hannu Ruotsalainen, LL.M. trained on the bench.
About Charles River Development
Charles River Development provides fully managed solutions including software, hosting and data services to automate front- and middle-office investment operations for buy-side firms. SaaS solutions and on-premises software support portfolio management, compliance and risk monitoring, order and execution management, access to global liquidity and post-trade processing. The company has more than 300 clients in over 40 countries in the institutional asset and fund management, alternative, wealth management, insurance, banking, pension and custody markets.