With the world facing unprecedented change, focusing on business as usual is a necessary challenge. CEO Robert DeDominicis shares how GBST is supporting our clients to provide critical financial services for their customers.
As the global economy reels from the impacts of COVID-19, the financial services sector is dealing with ongoing uncertainty and change. Remote working is a big adjustment for large organisations with complex IT systems. New laws and regulations are being fast-tracked to support people in financial hardship. And there has been record activity on the world’s stock markets as financial markets respond to the pandemic.
We are keenly aware of impacts for our clients across both wealth management and capital markets sectors. Their customers are depending on them to help access funds, keep investments safe, and find alternative opportunities for growth. As the providers of the critical systems they rely on for daily operations, our mission is clear – do what we do best and continue to deliver at the same high standards.
Scaling new trading heights
When the global scale of COVID-19 became clear, financial market volatility rocketed. The banks, broker-dealers and custodians using our platforms for retail and institutional trade processing faced unprecedented volumes of activity.
In the Australian market in March, GBST systems connected to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) CHESS platform processed over $350bn in securities trades, averaging $16bn per day. In mid March, one of our clients processed over 2.3m trades in one day, a record for a broker in the Australian market and for our Shares platform.
Our Syn~ platform also supported a US-based client through a record day, processing 3 times their average daily trades. Their middle office team was saved from hours of overtime and manual data entry by an efficient system.
With our post-trade systems built on automation and robust technology, we comfortably scale for these clients to empower them in challenging times.
Getting money moving to those in need
One of the Australian Government’s economic measures is offering those experiencing financial hardship early access to some superannuation. Those eligible can claim up to $10,000 per financial year (for 2019/20 and 2020/21), and from late April, superannuation funds must be able to make these payments.
Our Composer wealth administration platform already has the functionality to process one-off hardship payments as a simple way of making these payments. But with around 250,000 of our client’s members expected to seek help, managing these as individual payments would be time-consuming and delay access to income for vulnerable Australians.
To meet the new demand, we are upgrading this functionality to allow for bulk processing. We’re also working with the ATO to align their data with our systems to cut down administrative time and cost. So our clients will be able to meet their legislative obligations and most importantly, move fast to get help to members.
Business as usual
Reliability, scalability and flexibility are always important. But when the pressure is dialled up, financial institutions need to trust in their technology providers. We are the experts – and we’re here to free up your time to focus on the hard stuff.
Our teams are working around the clock to keep our products working seamlessly, so it’s business as usual for our clients. We’re proud to play our part in keeping financial markets moving.
If you have specific questions about how we’re responding to COVID-19, please contact your Account Manager.
Posted in: Wealth Management Administration
