Investment Data Warehouse: A Complete Overview 

In an effort to keep up with the complex regulatory environment and increasingly competitive landscape, financial institutions need integrated and optimized processes, data, and technology. An investment data warehouse (IDW) is foundational to that ecosystem. 

Proper investment data warehousing is critical to world-class investment management, providing a centralized repository for storing, managing, and analyzing vast amounts of investment data.  

What is an Investment Data Warehouse?  

By thoroughly focusing only on investment data management, an investment data warehouse strives to bring disparate data together into one place. An IDW can take in data from, and feed to, many disparate systems. Essentially, the investment data warehouse is a central hub for collecting, combining, and organizing data. It simplifies the whole process by aggregating data in all different shapes and sizes and making it easy to analyze. To ensure accuracy and reliability, the data is thoroughly checked and cleansed before it is fully collated together and available as reports.  

What Data is Stored in an Investment Management Data Warehouse? 

There are various types of data stored in an Investment Management Data Warehouse. 

• Market data (e.g. prices) 
• Security master data (instrument terms and conditions) 
• Classifications (e.g. ESG information) 
• Corporate actions and position lifecycle events 
• NAV time-series 

Data sources include Portfolio Management Software, Investment Accounting Software, Trade Order Management Systems, market data, Execution Management Systems, etc. 

Use Cases of a Data Warehouse for Asset Managers 

Some of the most common use cases of an Investment Data Warehouse for asset managers and fund managers are: 

1. Easy ReportingRather than wasting time dealing with multiple systems, investment managers want to simplify and speed up their reporting by storing all their investment data in one spot. Aggregating all the data in the same place allows for information be more easily extracted and analyzed.
2. Tie Together a Best-Of-Breed System LandscapeA purpose-built Investment Data Warehouse for Asset Managers can fulfil the purpose of “gluing” together connecting systems and gathering data from them for downstream reporting. However, a broader solution, like a front-to-back full investment lifecycle system would negate the need to integrate so many systems in the first place.
3. Outsourcing to Third-Party Specialized Solutions The industry’s reliance on outsourced third-party specialized solutions continues to grow. Firms that have made this transition cite the benefits of accuracy and efficiency that investment management technology offers. These tools can analyze large amounts of data and assist in answering questions about your investors, portfolio performance and macroeconomics to spot trends and opportunities for business development. Moreover, asset managers can gain confidence in the integrity of their data by drilling down to examine the origination then monitor the data’s progress through the data pipeline. End users have access and greater transparency to trace the lineage of their data and processes. 

How does Clearwater Analytics help? 

Clearwater assists to consolidate and manage data from various sources and provides comprehensive reporting and analysis related to investments by offering an all-in-one data warehouse for all your needs. For investment managers, wealth managers, and OCIOs looking to make the most of their data, Clearwater PRISM is the industry’s most impactful solution. PRISM is a SaaS-based self-service platform that gathers, validates, standardizes, and normalizes data from all sources.  

Clearwater allows you to: 

• Gain full transparency and auditability into your data pipeline by providing insight into data delivery routes, data integrity, and data lineage via comprehensive, web-based reporting
• Quickly configure and customize data ingestion and delivery formats, times, and frequencies
• Become more confident in your data by easily identifying the root cause of data issues such as incorrect coupon rates, missing data or security master fields, and more
• Create custom reports and dashboards without waiting for IT or a report builder
• Create push button pixel perfect PDF statements using data across multiple systems and data providers.

With Clearwater PRISM, you can take any data source for your investments and combine them into one view for easier access, greater accuracy, and more timely delivery to stakeholders.  

Schedule a call with an expert to learn more!