© Tartila AdobeStock In an environment where institutional investors and asset managers are confronted with ever-increasing volumes of data, the important issue is not about collecting more, it’s how managers and their investors can use that data for decision-making. David Bellaïche, Global Head of Products & Innovation at CACEIS, shares his vision on how AI-powered data analytics can inform clients' decision-making and transform the asset servicer’s role.
David Bellaïche
Global Head of Products & Innovation
Investors now have access to vast amounts of data so what is today’s main challenge?
With digitalisation, data volumes have skyrocketed: market information, price movements, ESG data, transaction flows, granular portfolio data – often in real time. Yet much of this data remains underutilised, fragmented, difficult to compare and confined to largely backward-looking reports.
The challenge is no longer about collecting ever more data, but about turning what we already have into genuinely actionable intelligence for decision-making. We are witnessing a turning point: after an initial phase of digitalisation focused on capturing information, followed by a second phase of process optimisation, we are now entering a third phase in which the question becomes: “How do we best harness this data to create value?”
The goal is to give investors greater visibility into market trends, a better understanding of their risks, and additional tools to inform their asset allocation choices. This is especially true for investors with considerably more complex portfolios, which combine listed, unlisted and digital assets, and therefore create an even heavier reporting burden. We can ease this burden by simplifying access to the information that really matters.
What specific role can an institution like CACEIS play in this new data landscape?
We sit at the very heart of our clients' data flows. As a depositary and asset servicer, we process and secure large volumes of information relating to portfolio assets, the characteristics of managed strategies, client flows and movements, ESG data and a host of other valuable intelligence. This data underpins the entire range of administrative, control and reporting processes.
But beyond operational efficiency, we see a major opportunity: to transform this data into a rich analytical resource. Arguably the most strategic information relates to investor flows. By aggregating and anonymising data across our entire client base, we can surface market trends: asset-class arbitrage, shifts in liquidity, concentration movements. These insights are not theoretical indicators; they are a direct reflection of what is actually happening in portfolios, mirroring the decisions of international investors.
A growing number of asset managers are focusing their resources and attention on their core business – investment management, analysis and new product development – and outsourcing operational functions to specialists like CACEIS. This trend is particularly pronounced in a context where reporting requirements and technology investments are demanding ever more time and financial resources on tasks that are, ultimately, ancillary to the manager's core activity. By entrusting us with these matters, our clients free their teams to concentrate on their expertise and on what directly generates value for them.
This evolution brings CACEIS closer to the heart of the investment decision: we are clearly not positioning ourselves as an asset manager or investment adviser, but rather as a partner capable of delivering greater analysis, transparency and information useful for decision-making – all while working to meet our clients' needs with tailored, rather than standardised, services. Our ambition is to keep them informed with relevant, reliable and timely information. We aim to be a key data partner in their decision-making processes, supplying high quality insight.
How does data translate into value creation for investors?
As an asset servicer, we are often the first to detect even slight variations in market liquidity. Using this information, investors can identify potential liquidity shortfalls and position themselves more directly, without relying solely on generic benchmarks or delayed published reports, by drawing on intelligence that is more relevant and better aligned with the reality of their portfolios.
In practice, this means faster, better-informed decisions for our clients, and a greater ability to anticipate rather than react to market movements. With robust analysis and a thorough understanding of the client's portfolio and investment objectives, we help them make more informed portfolio decisions. Concretely, this enables managers to move from a standardised investment selection strategy to a customised decision making strategy.
How is CACEIS's role evolving beyond traditional reporting, particularly with AI?
Our remit is today broader than producing static reports. It concerns interpreting trends behind data and providing forward-looking insight. This involves generating alerts on declining liquidity, identifying geographical or cross-asset allocation trends, and monitoring risk profiles. We are moving from historical data reporting to genuine forward-looking decision support.
Artificial intelligence is a key accelerator in this shift from raw data to genuinely actionable intelligence. We are already using it in a prudent and controlled manner – for example, to process unstructured information (such as PDF documents or images), to convert documents into structured, usable data, to optimise our processes and to detect certain risks at an earlier stage.
With AI agents that autonomously perform value-added tasks, we are reducing our IT development cycles by around 70%. In terms of execution speed we are changing the way we structure, govern and derive value from information. AI is prompting us to completely rethink the architecture of our processing chains and IT infrastructure.
How do you reconcile this innovation with risk management, and what prospects do you see for investors?
Governance structure and accompanying controls are essential. With the proliferation of AI tools, anyone can build applications, but a strong governance framework ensures we mitigate any risks. The winners will not be those with the most tools or the most visible AI communications, but those who can integrate these technologies in a controlled, scalable and well governed manner.
CACEIS takes a balanced approach to cloud and data sovereignty. The majority of our critical data remains hosted ‘on-premises’, ensuring full control and maximum compliance. Only when strictly necessary may data be held in European cloud environments, a practice that is fully compliant with Crédit Agricole Group procedures and regulatory requirements. As a matter of course, we avoid contractual lock-ins with any single technology provider as well as the use of any proprietary technology systems. We are committed to storing data in Europe, in compliance with EU regulations and our clients' expectations.
We are entering an era in which data is becoming central to the investment process – more up-to-date, more accessible and, above all, more relevant. Our role is to go beyond operational processing and reporting to produce genuinely actionable intelligence, thereby helping investors make better-informed decisions in an increasingly complex market environment.
In short, our goal is to enable every client to derive greater value from their own data – ensuring greater simplicity and confidence, and the potential to generate a positive impact on performance. We have the data; now we are using use it intelligently and responsibly.
