PostTrade 360 Recap: Turning Investment Operations Data into a Competitive Advantage
At PostTrade 360 in Stockholm, FRT’s Rob Rynd, Global Head of Partnerships, moderated a panel on scaling investment operations data for growth in a post-trade world. He was joined by Jonathan Skelton, Global Custody Product Manager at State Street; James O’Sullivan, Head of Strategy and Core Custody Product at BNY; Dean Little, CEO and Co-Founder of Proxymity; and Malav Mehta, Head of Product at FRT.
Data volumes are growing, settlement cycles are shrinking, and pressure to adopt AI is building. Against that backdrop, the panel focused less on how to process more data, faster, and more on how firms can turn operational data into a lasting advantage for themselves and their clients.
From Support Function to Strategic Asset
Panelists agreed that accuracy, control, and efficiency are now table stakes. What sets operations teams apart is what they do with the data they hold. Jonathan pointed to a State Street study of more than 900 investors, in which 75% said a holistic data strategy would drive revenue and profits through 2027. Industry AUM has grown more than 80% over the past decade, to roughly $147 trillion, while margins have stayed largely flat. That gap is where operations can create value.
For FRT, scale is measured by straight-through processing (STP) rates and recovery outcomes, not volume alone. Malav explained that FRT processes billions of trades a year across more than 3 million investor accounts and files over a million claims. Speed matters, but only when paired with accuracy, since a claim filed late or incorrectly undermines the recovery itself.
Panelists also agreed that data strategy is no longer owned by IT alone. Malav shared an example from a long-standing wealth management client whose data feeds ran on legacy systems, which made reconciliation a heavy, recurring lift for FRT’s operations team. Working together, FRT and the client modernized the exchange into a real-time case data API. The new model immediately improved feed delivery and automated the reconciliation process. It also cut out data that had no bearing on cases, so the client now shares only what’s needed, a win for its risk and compliance teams.
AI Is Only as Good as the Data Beneath It
The AI discussion quickly moved past whether to adopt it and toward where it adds real value. Dean argued that successful AI depends on unglamorous groundwork: centralized data storage, a well-maintained data dictionary, and the discipline to keep both current as systems change. Jonathan added that for many clients, the conversation is about control as much as opportunity. Due diligence questions now center on data security, access, and whether client data is used in AI-enabled processes at all.
Custodians shared concrete progress. State Street has used AI to pull corporate action data from emails, PDFs, and core applications, helping it keep pace as many event windows have tightened from ten days to five. BNY has gone a step further. It uses “digital employees,” autonomous agents with their own user IDs and line managers, to repair cash payments and securities transactions directly in its core platforms. James noted these agents have handled about 150,000 cash payment repairs and 50,000 securities transactions this year, supported by a 14-stage release process and human oversight.
Malav offered a counterweight: AI is one tool in the toolkit, not a solution for everything. AI performs well on probabilistic tasks, but class action filing demands certainty. Even a small margin of error, applied at the scale FRT operates, would mean claims missed or filed incorrectly. For that reason, FRT keeps AI out of its core claims platform and applies it at the edges, such as surfacing alerts and helping teams work more efficiently.
The panel shared a common view: AI can speed decisions, but guardrails and a human in the loop remain essential.
What Successful Operations Teams Will Look Like in Five Years
Looking ahead, the panel described operations teams that are more connected, more adaptable, and focused on higher-value work.
Interoperability will extend beyond systems to people. Jonathan noted that 24-hour settlement and the arrival of digital assets alongside traditional ones will change how firms structure their teams. Few corporate actions or tax reclaim teams today know how to process a digital asset event. Traditionally siloed functions may need to be reimagined.
Decisions will increasingly involve counterparties. Dean predicted that the next step for exception management is interoperable decision-making, where resolving an exception often requires input from the party that sent the data. As real-time, intraday exchanges replace batch processing, that connectivity will determine whether firms realize AI’s speed benefits.
Clients will expect visible outcomes and productivity gains must translate into clear value for clients.
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Thank you to our panelists and to everyone who joined us at PostTrade 360. To connect with a member of the FRT team, please reach out to your FRT representative or email learnmore@frtservices.com.