Consultancies Delta Capita and The Field Effect agree strategic alliance
Two London-based consulting firms for the financial services industry – Delta Capita and The Field Effect – have agreed a strategic alliance. The deal sees the consultancies work together on a range of topics in the professional services value chain, from consulting and delivery to solutions and managed services.
Founded in 2010, UK headquartered Delta Capita today operates on three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa, serving clients globally. The firm’s circa 120 advisors support clients in the financial services with an end-to-end service, spanning advisory, project execution, solutions and outsourcing.
The firm’s alliance with The Field Effect, a boutique with ten (senior) consultants based in London, is primarily geared at improving its client service to customers in the UK, with a focus on securities financing, clearing and collateral management.
The alliance will, according to Joe Channer and David Field, the respective CEO’s of Delta Capita and The Field Effect, deliver a strong combined capability in prime brokerage, securities finance and collateral management. The joining of forces comes at a time when clients are facing regulatory-driven transformational change in the domain, following the (coming) introduction of several new regulations, including the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) that aims to increase the transparency of securities financing transactions (SFTs).
Commenting on the challenges that organsiations are facing in meeting SFTR requirements, Channer explained, “SFTR is a very significant piece of regulation impacting almost every aspect of the trade lifecycle, and so around 60% of related processes are impacted by the regulation. It requires changes to operating models, considerable data engineering programmes and new technology solutions to address these challenges.” Building on research conducted by The Field Effect, Field added “Whilst the drive is towards SFTR compliance, the business will need to know the impact on their trading activity and operating model, assessing the costs of implementation and on-going reporting.”
Commenting on the reporting requirement, Channer said “Firms urgently require a comprehensive review of their reporting and reconciliation processes however can be missing as much as 40% of the data required for SFTR reporting.”
Both partners of the consulting firms, however, added that beyond striving for compliance, financial services companies can use the regulatory drive to build efficiency into processes and enhance the way data is used for creating insights, improving profitability down the line.
Better consulting and technology delivery
In addition to combining the pre and post-trade expertise of both firms, both consultancies will also leverage each other’s’ extensive experience in strategy, road mapping and operating model design. Delta Capita will further bring in its capabilities in technology and data & integration solutions, managed services (for example: for Credit Suisse’s EMEA structured products business) and consortia management. In September 2016, Delta Capita was, for instance, appointed as managed service provider to the Plato partnership – a tier one investment firm consortium backed by financial services giants such as BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Liontrust and UBS.
Commenting on the alliance, The Field Effect founder David Field said, “The combination of our respective strengths will serve to provide both our clients with the very best of consulting and technology solutions.” Field established the consultancy business in 2014 after a 20+ year career in financial services. Previously, he was a board member of Rule Financial, an investment banking consultancy with over 800 people, until its acquisition by GFT. Prior to Rule Financial, he spent 12 years at TCA Consulting where he served the board as head of the wholesale & investment banking practice.
Channer remarked, “We are delighted with this strategic alliance.” Looking ahead, he added that Delta Capita is exploring the possibilities of building collaborative and mutualised models to help the industry as a whole meet SFTR regulatory commitments in the most cost effective and efficient way. “Meeting the requirements has created some common challenges across the sector. We are highly experienced at facilitating industry consortia and in creating and managing shared industry platform solutions.”
