Substantive Research, a research discovery and research spend analytics provider for the buy-side, has launched its Analyst Mapping service, allowing asset managers to gain an aggregated view of banks’ analyst moves, their seniority and sector coverage of relevance to them.
Managers can now understand which brokers are investing or disinvesting in experienced analysts covering the sectors and asset classes pertinent to their strategies and allocate their research budgets more efficiently, to ensure the quality of research is maintained.
The changes in the provision and consumption of research following MiFID II unbundling requirements coupled with the move to virtual engagements in response to Covid-19 has presented asset managers with a number of challenges. They have to ensure that their investment professionals receive the quality research they need, at an appropriate valuation. Furthermore, brokers are continuously making changes across their analyst teams as they concentrate on their comparative advantages and areas of greatest leverage.
By launching its Analyst Mapping service, Substantive Research gives buy-side firms access to centralised data to track analyst moves, providing them with crucial context for the evaluation and benchmarking of their payments to research providers. This helps managers optimise their research spend and better manage their broker relationships, whilst recognising where their providers are investing.
What’s more, firms can recognise new areas of quality and coverage inside and outside their existing broker list. This is particularly important post MIFID II, as they are no longer allowed to read research they haven’t paid for.
Mike Carrodus, CEO of Substantive Research, says: “The global research market shows no sign of convergence yet. Europe remains committed to unbundling, with asset managers paying for research from their own P&L, but considering a softening of the rules for research on SMEs and fixed income; at the same time, the US continues to pass research costs to their client base. However, it is clear that both sides are working with capped budgets, meaning they are allocating carefully and transparently.
“Our Analyst Mapping tool will enable asset managers to have an aggregate view over analyst moves across the market, evaluate where banks invest or disinvest, benchmark sector expertise gains and losses broker by broker, and ultimately decide how to allocate their research spend in relation to the areas and asset classes relevant to them.”
The Analyst Mapping service is delivered as a realtime Dashboard, breaking down relevant data by country, sector and individual brokers; multiple disparate data sources are cleaned, standardised and checked for gaps to ensure accuracy and enable a holistic view.
