Jon Chandler
Director, Research
Jon Chandler has 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Cutter Associates in 2014, Jon was a senior business analyst for State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), where he was involved in a number of projects for the front and middle office, including UAT design and execution for an order management system (Fidessa IMS), the implementation of a web-based due diligence platform (FundInsight), and an enterprise solution to support blended benchmarks. Prior to his project roles, Jon was a principal in fixed income trade operations at SSGA. He has extensive experience with post-trade operations and applications, such as OASYS/CTM, PORTIA, MBSExpert, and FailStation. Jon earned a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Florida and an MBA from Northeastern University.
Recent research assignments and publications include the following:
- Alternative Investment Systems
- Cutter Benchmarking: Alternative Investments
- Cutter Benchmarking: Derivatives and Collateral Management
- Cutter Benchmarking: Investment Risk
- Cutter Benchmarking: Performance Measurement and Attribution
- Derivatives and Collateral Management Solutions
- Execution Management Systems
- Managed Data Services
- Order Management Systems
- Outsourcing Solutions
- Performance Measurement and Attribution Systems
- Portfolio Analytics Solutions
- Private Debt
- Risk Management Systems
- The Evolving Front Office Support Model
Andrew Jenkins
Director, Consulting
Andrew Jenkins brings more than 20 years of experience in buy-side financial services, with a focus on project management in the areas of performance measurement and attribution, portfolio analytics, GIPS compliance, risk management, and data management. At Cutter Associates, Andrew works in the firm’s Strategy & Data Management and Performance Measurement practices.
Andrew is a thought leader on performance measurement business practices and GIPS compliance, regularly speaking on the topics at industry conferences. Andrew has a deep understanding of asset management operational and technology processes, and has successfully managed several large-scale operational and systems integration projects throughout his career, including data warehouses, performance measurement and attribution systems, web-integration services, and the acquisition and implementation of a client reporting service. He is active in multiple industry groups in the areas of performance measurement and risk and in board-related forums.
Prior to joining Cutter, Andrew was a director at Charles Schwab Investment Management, where he oversaw performance measurement and attribution, risk, client reporting, and competitive research. He previously worked in the Board Analysis Services Group at Lipper Analytical (now Thomson Reuters). Andrew holds a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Colorado.
The following blog post is one in a series of Cutter 2024 Trends, Themes, and Predictions that provides insights into industry challenges and considerations for firms in 2024 and beyond.
Many of us set goals in January for the upcoming year and commit to better habits ─ or we just try to shed some pounds when even our sweatpants start to feel tight. Many of us make new goals for the year ahead, but very few of us follow through.
One area where investment managers must follow through, however, is ensuring that they’ve got their house in order when it comes to risk management. This year, more of our member firms will invest in their risk management practice, so they’re better equipped to handle whatever 2024 may bring.
Another eventful year has come and gone, as our member firms looked for signals of a recession, witnessed several bank failures, and continued to watch for the Fed’s next move. And as two wars raged, other regional tensions bubbled up in the background, from Europe to South America, with the potential to impact commodities, shipping lanes, and supply chains across the globe.
Last year proved that the markets can be unpredictable and unkind to those underprepared for what may come, or those that were even once considered too big to fail. And it has become clearer to our member firms that they need the ability to respond quickly to volatility in the markets. To do so, some of our member firms will need to improve their process and shore up the tools in their arsenal.
They’ll need to refine their risk models to make better assumptions about treasury risk, natural disasters, and stressed market environments. They’ll need to give more attention to private markets like venture capital, commercial real estate, and private debt, as these are the areas within the past year where there’s been more focus and heightened concerns. And some firms will continue to look to incorporate climate risk and ESG into their analysis.
More firms will also look to shed some bad habits and develop best practices. In our CutterBenchmarking 2020 Investment Risk Management report, only 52% of respondents noted that their firm had established some automation for data cleansing and exception monitoring. Technology could help, but overall most firms were not extensively using AI or machine learning at the time of our benchmarking report. Because it’s important to identify data exceptions as early as possible in the process, we expect more firms will look to automate and streamline their risk management processes, especially some of the more basic data management functions.
The clutter has also got to go ─ and your firm is still using tools that are either obsolete or are no longer sufficient on their own to meet the demands of risk management today. We’re looking at you, Excel!
To learn more about this topic, or speak with a research analyst or consultant, contact us at [email protected].