Case study
Asia-Pacific
Leading securities institution
Zero disruption
Thirty years of legacy, retired without a missed settlement.
Thirty years of legacy technology was consuming the IT budget, driving error rates, and quietly deciding which markets the firm could and could not enter. Millions of investors were being served through it daily. Incremental fixes had run out. The mandate was to replace the backbone without anyone outside the building noticing.
Client
A leading Asian securities institution serving millions of investors
Trigger
A 30-year-old platform limiting growth and consuming IT spend
Mandate
Modernise without disrupting the business; build for expansion
Approach
Controlled deployment, no big bang, continuous validation
The outcome
Lower cost. Faster settlement. New markets open.
40%
Lower IT and maintenance cost
Capital freed for growth instead of upkeep
~50%
Fewer operational errors
Automation and workflow optimisation across the lifecycle
~40%
Faster settlement processing
Better client service, less risk carried overnight
70%
Delivered out of the box
Months of custom development avoided
12 CSDs
New markets opened
Direct connectivity from day one, and growing
0 disruption
Service to millions of investors
Controlled deployment, continuous validation, seamless go-live
The starting point
The backbone had become the bottleneck.
Rising operational risk
A 30-year-old platform, high error rates from manual processes, and fragmented workflows across the lifecycle.
Growth blocked by technology
Limited scalability restricted entry into new markets, while cross-border ambition kept growing.
Budget consumed by upkeep
Excessive IT spend tied to maintenance rather than innovation, with regulatory complexity increasing across jurisdictions.
No room for error
Any misstep would disrupt daily settlement, client service and regulatory reporting for millions of investors.
The condition of success
Replace ageing infrastructure without operational disruption to daily settlements, client services or regulatory reporting obligations.
What changed
Post-trade became an enabler of expansion.
Cost base
40% off IT and maintenance. Capital that had been funding the upkeep of obsolete technology moved to growth initiatives, and technology teams moved from maintenance to differentiation.
Market access
Twelve CSDs, live from day one and growing. Direct connectivity across time zones and regulatory regimes removed the technology barrier to regional and international expansion.
Speed to market
New products and geographies launch faster. Configuration-led change means the firm can capitalise on opportunities ahead of competitors instead of waiting on a development queue.
Risk and control
Around half the operational errors, and far less manual processing. A materially stronger control environment – the kind boards and regulators ask about directly.
Delivery risk
70% of functionality out of the box. Production-proven workflows removed months of custom build, and structured migration with our team working alongside theirs delivered go-live with minimal disruption.
Capacity for what is next
An n-tier architecture that absorbs volume without proportional cost. Extensible for T+1, settlement compression and emerging market structures, with no second transformation to fund.