Running routine back-office functions and adapting to constantly changing and increasing regulation is a drain on resources for actors in the financial sector – a drain that does not provide a competitive advantage. S-Bank Fund Management (previously FIM Varainhoito Oy), which is part of the S-Bank group, decided in 2016 to outsource some of the back-office functions of its funds to Digia, such as the funds’ value calculation and technical maintenance of the share register system. S-Bank Fund Management remains responsible for licensed functions related to the management of the funds. Digia Financial Systems acts as the back-end system for Digia’s outsourcing service. In early 2021, the asset management and real estate investment services acquired from Fennia by S-Bank were also connected to the service package.
“By offering an outsourcing service for processes related to fund management, Digia is helping S-Bank achieve cost benefits and the ability to focus its development resources on the projects that are most important from a business perspective. Digia has the system products and maintenance services needed to produce these services in place, which means we have a strong foundation to work off of when offering outsourcing services to actors in the financial sector,” comments Sami Vallinkoski, Director, Digia Financial Services.
The cooperation between S-Bank Fund Management and Digia to outsource fund functions expanded when Digia took over responsibility for processes related to the management of private equity funds. Service production started successfully on schedule in September 2021.
“We have worked well with Digia in the past when it came to outsourcing back-office functions. Expanding outsourcing to private equity funds is the logical next step and allows us to focus better than ever on actively developing that area of business,” says Teri Heilala, Head of Alternative Investments at S-Bank.
“Alternative investments, like different real estate funds, private equity funds and impact investment funds, continue to draw the attention of more and more investors because they offer them an opportunity to spread out their market risk. Aside from the capital of these funds, the rapid growth in the number of investors in recent years also speaks to their popularity,” Heilala adds.
Thanks to outsourcing some of their functions, S-Bank is now able to better focus on developing their services and growing their business. It also allows them to ensure that the outsourced processes are performed by a constantly developing service in a cost-effective and reliable manner.
“More and more financial sector companies are interested in acquiring large and clear service packages to simplify and improve the management of their services and partnership networks. Digia wants to be a comprehensive partner for actors in the financial sector. Complementing the existing selection of services with back-office services for the rapidly growing private equity fund market backs up this goal excellently,” Vallinkoski adds.
Further information:
Sami Vallinkoski
Director, Digia Financial Services
Tel. +358 40 740 6598
Teri Heilala
Head of Alternative Investments, S-Bank
Tel. +358 50 306 3622