SimCorp establishes private research institution

Professor Ingo Walter at Stern School of Business, New York University takes on the position as director of the new institution.

In light of the financial crisis and the resulting increasingly complex strategic challenges arising in the investment management industry, SimCorp has established an independent research institution. The institution, SimCorp StrategyLab, is headed by Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein professor in finance, governance & ethics at Stern School of Business, New York University. SimCorp StrategyLab aims to build thought leadership in applied IT and investment management and to contribute to the development and future growth of the industry in general.

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The past two years of events in the global investment management industry has given us reason to believe that we and the rest of the industry could benefit from qualified input as to how to address the severe strategic challenges the entire industry is facing. We want to demonstrate a strong industry commitment by contributing to risk mitigation, to enabling growth and to reducing cost in the future environment of the investment management industry. We wish to do this through research, industry expertise and best practise,” says Executive Vice President of SimCorp Group, Torben Munch.

The scope of the research work of SimCorp StrategyLab is centred around identifying, understanding and suggesting solutions to issues pertaining to mitigating risk, reducing cost and enabling growth which are of relevance to the highest strategic levels of institutions in the investment management industry. In addition, the work aims to suggest solutions from an IT perspective.



“The three themes, mitigating risk, enabling growth and reducing cost, are in our view fundamental drivers of value creation in the industry. Indeed this can be said to be what investment management is all about. Business cycles determine the weight of each driver in a mutually interdependent relationship. For the time being, mitigating risk and reducing cost are the predominant drivers. Hopefully, in the near future, growth will return as a strong driver to the investment management market. Regardless of the current environment, our working hypothesis is that good governance is about addressing all three drivers concurrently. And as organisations seek to reduce the trade-off between them, they gain greater scalability and become less ‘error-prone’,” continues Torben Munch. The three themes are, as a consequence of their fundamental nature, also those of the research mandate of SimCorp StrategyLab. In practise, the research work of the institution will lead to research, publishing and seminar activities in the investment management sector within the sphere of finance and information technology.

The institution will, under the direction of Professor Walter, conduct research work of its own. However, a significant part of the research will draw upon leading industry and academic input as well as affiliations with industry associations and world leading universities and business schools.

“The challenge of SimCorp StrategyLab is not only to remain focused on the research mandate. Additionally, it is a key objective that the outcome of the research work can be applied in practise by the industry as well as serve as input for innovative product development strategies and well-founded consulting services at SimCorp. I am extremely confident that Professor Ingo Walter, with his huge practical and academic experience in the global asset management industry, is the right person to make this happen,” concludes Torben Munch.

The first result of the research work of SimCorp StrategyLab is the Global Investment Management Risk Report 2009.

 

Professor Ingo Walter holds the Seymour Milstein Professorship of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics and serves as the Vice Dean of Faculty at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He has been on the faculty at New York University since 1970. From 1971 to 1979 he was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and subsequently served a number of terms as Chairman of International Business and Chairman of Finance, as well as Director of the New York University Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions from 1990 to 2003 and Director of the Stern Global Business Institute from 2003 to 2006. He has had visiting professorial appointments at the Free University of Berlin, University of Mannheim, University of Zurich, University of Basel, the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, and various other academic and research institutions. He also held a joint appointment as Professor of International Management from 1986 to 2005 and remains a Visiting Professor at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Ingo Walter’s principal areas of academic and consulting activity include international trade policy, international banking, environmental economics, and economics of multinational corporate operations. He has published papers in various professional journals in these fields and is the author, co-author or editor of 26 books. In addition to his new position as a director of SimCorp StrategyLab, Professor Walter has served as a consultant to various corporations, banks, government agencies and international institutions, and has held a number of board memberships.