Santander Asset Management (SAM) has reached an agreement with BlackRock to adopt the Aladdin platform to accelerate the asset manager’s technological transformation.
Digital transformation has been a cornerstone of the strategy throughout the Santander Group since 2015. Since then, the Group has increased the number of digital customers it serves by 93%.
The Aladdin platform will allow greater consistency and standardization of risk management across all of SAM’s markets, providing clients with more transparent risk/return analysis and more complete and timely reporting. With the adoption of the Aladdin platform, SAM expects to reduce reaction time to changes in market conditions and the regulatory environment, helping to improve fund performance and product innovation. Along with major changes in its product lineup (Latin American and European Flagship funds), Aladdin will help re-position the asset manager as a competitive player for global institutional investors.
SAM will be the first asset manager to use the Aladdin platform in Spain, Brazil, Portugal and Argentina. “This agreement positions SAM at the technological vanguard in the industry, alongside major global players, and will help us accelerate our transformation. The introduction of this platform will help us improve and add value to the investment solutions we offer our clients. Aladdin will facilitate the change of our risk paradigms toward a global and uniform system in all countries in which we are present”, Mariano Belinky, Global CEO of Santander Asset Management said.
“We are thrilled to deepen our global relationship with Santander Asset Management. Sophisticated investors like SAM are well positioned to leverage Aladdin, our industry-leading investment and risk management technology, to deliver better outcomes for their clients,” said Armando Senra, Head of Latin America for BlackRock.
Aladdin will start to be deployed in all of SAM´s markets this year. The new platform is expected to be operative in Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal, Luxembourg and Poland in April of 2020, in Brazil and Argentina in August and, lastly, in Mexico, Chile and Puerto Rico in December 2020.
