Establishing New Middle Office Functions Across All Primary Asset Classes

Tier 1 investment bank | Operational transformation | Private sector

The challenge: A Tier 1 investment bank's Global Markets division needed to establish new Middle Office functions across all primary asset classes — equities, currencies, commodities and fixed income — across multiple geographies, including London, New York, Hong Kong and Paris. There was no universal understanding of Middle Office roles and responsibilities across the business.

What New Link Consulting did: New Link Consulting deployed an experienced team to review the current state across all asset classes and geographies. The team reviewed over one thousand functions and controls, ran multi-day workshops with stakeholders across all business lines, designed a standardised Functional Operating Model and implementation plan covering people, processes, controls and technology infrastructure, and extended the review to Risk and Finance functions in a fourth phase of the engagement.

The outcome: A globally consistent Functional Operating Model with clearly defined Middle Office roles and responsibilities across all asset classes and geographies. New Link Consulting's practitioner-led approach reduced the burden on the bank's own teams and ensured the right questions were asked and answered across all functions.