Fund managers have a lot on their minds. They worry about distribution channels, performance, client retention, regulation, costs, technology and the risk/reward ratio of alternative investment strategies.

Many managers have become tightly focused on these challenges, excluding all others as peripheral. They have been progressively outsourcing back and middle-office operations as they realised they added nothing, other than cost, to the bottom line. Being good at settlement is not a key differentiator when it comes to beauty parades.