Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Taps AQMetrics for MiFID II Transaction Reporting

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management (SMAM), one of the largest asset management companies in Asia with assets under management of over JPY 67 trillion, selected AQMetrics for its MiFID II transaction reporting platform in August 2021.

The firm had an urgent need to find a replacement to its incumbent solution, which no longer  offered automation, value and service aligned with the firm's profile. 

SMAM therefore sought a MiFID II Transaction Reporting specialist and ARM whose platform offered superior service, utilised industry-leading technology, and delivered real tangible value that was more aligned with the firm’s reporting volumes.

The solution 

After a thorough search and due diligence process, SMAM eventually chose the AQMetrics platform for its best in class user interface, reporting automation and expert knowledge and experience. 

‘Moving vendors is not something we do lightly, but the AQMetrics team made the migration process straightforward,’ said Ryosuke Takigawa, Senior Portfolio Manager. ‘We were particularly impressed by the user interface, instant data validation reconciliation, and expert knowledge. The fact that they could replicate the workflow of our previous ARM, but offer superior value and service, was a major benefit to us.’ 

Before going live, AQMetrics held migration workshops with SMAM, ensuring that the existing reporting workflow was mapped to AQMetrics ARM. The AQMetrics customer success team worked directly with SMAM to ensure all data was easily transferred and reported successfully. 

To do this, SMAM was set up in a fully-functional test environment to allow for parallel reporting prior to migration switchover. And the change management process was simplified and shadowed by the AQMetrics customer team who have migrated firms of all sizes.   

The migration process was also de-risked, ensuring that SMAM and their compliance team were completely happy with the new platform, workflow and compliance with the MiFID II transaction reporting requirements. 

‘The migration was simple,’ Takigawa added. ‘The technology is easy and transparent, but real-time validation and reconciliation is a major benefit. Overall we are happy we switched.’