Multi-asset EMS automation: A scalability story

Sarasin & Partners

Sarasin & Partners (Sarasin) is a global investment manager with a stewardship lens, which has more than £18.5bn assets under management (AUM). The firm employs a global, thematic investment approach on behalf of charities, private clients, institutions, and investment professionals.

FEATURED PRODUCT

 

INDUSTRY

Investment manager

LOCATION

London, United Kingdom

GOAL

Implementing an automation solution to achieve cost-effective operational efficiency and productivity

Over half of Sarasin’s fixed income orders and approximately three quarters of FX orders are automated. The firm has seen a significant increase in trading volume across asset classes in four years, without additional risk or resourcing issues.

Bloomberg’s Rule Builder automation solution now allows the team to perform order processes with one click, sending the order to the required broker for a tolerance check before execution.

A large proportion of Sarasin’s Gilt orders are now automated. Traders can focus on more complex trades, data analysis, and developing new opportunities to generate alpha.

Bloomberg’s Multi-Asset EMS and Rule Builder automation solution has enabled the trading desk to significantly improve productivity and operational efficiency, mitigate trading risk, increase collaboration among traders and spend more time in meaningful engagement with our portfolio managers. Crucially, it has allowed us to scale our business significantly.

Mo Sohail
Head of Dealing, Sarasin & Partners

Situation

Sarasin was among the first buy-side multi-asset trading desks to implement automation across all traded asset classes, including fixed income, FX, equities, and derivatives.

Following a review of the operating model, the firm sought to streamline workflows through automation to enhance operational efficiency and scalability. This initiative aimed to free up capacity for the remaining traders to focus on higher-value activities, such as executing less liquid asset classes and increasing engagement with portfolio managers (PMs), fostering collaboration in trade idea generation and liquidity sourcing.

Diversity across asset classes

Increase efficiency and scale

Problem

The firm faced the challenge of automating the trading flow and needed to determine whether to hire additional traders in the event of rapid asset growth or to implement an automation solution to achieve cost-effective operational efficiency and productivity.

Operational inefficiency

Impact on overall productivity

Solution

To enhance trading process productivity cost-effectively, Sarasin opted for a third-party automation solution rather than building in-house. A key decision was where to initiate the automation process: with the Order Management System (OMS) or the execution platform. The team chose to automate the trading workflow using an Execution Management System (EMS) and an automation solution, selecting Bloomberg’s Multi-Asset EMS and Rule Builder (RBLD) automation solution, which enables the creation of highly customized, automated workflows.

Financial efficiency

Automation solution

Time reduction

Bloomberg understands the investment and wealth management community and offers tools to support it.

Automation is key to driving productivity and operational efficiency across trading workflows and generating alpha.

Bloomberg’s Multi-Asset EMS and RBLD automation capabilities enable buy-side trading desks to scale their business across asset classes.

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