Australian asset managers who manage about $500 billion say there is little difference in the cost between managing front to back office operations internally and outsourcing such functions, says SimCorp.

SimCorp, which provides investment and portfolio management software, says it surveyed 40 organisations including investment managers and software companies and found that many asset managers often have internal teams that check and validate data, negating the cost of outsourcing such jobs.

“There is a perception that outsourcing costs less but that is not necessarily true,” says Peter Hill, managing director for SimCorp in Asia-Pacific.

Hill says many asset managers need to update their software platforms to “mitigate risk and support growth”.