Spotlight on Latin America
Broadening its global footprint, Charles River continues to build on-the-ground support and service capabilities for clients worldwide, including firms in fast-growing markets such as Latin America. Vice President, Sales, Americas, Spiros Giannaros, discusses how Charles River’s products and local experts provide professional implementation, consulting and support services to clients.
Tell us about your background and role at Charles River?
(SG) I’ve been in the financial services industry for 13 years, joining Charles River in 1999. I helped establish Charles River’s sales engineering team, drive product strategy and expand sales globally. Today, I am responsible for the adoption of Charles River’s products and services across North America, South America, Latin America and the Caribbean.
How does your team provide on-the-ground support to Latin American clients?
(SG) Charles River Development has served clients in Latin America since 2002. Our clients include leading asset managers in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Panama, as well as global investments firms that are expanding in the region.
We have on-the-ground support in Sao Paolo, Brazil, as well as sales and service partners in Mexico City and Santiago, Chile. Sao Paolo is a major hub for our local implementation, sales and support team. We can quickly deploy resources same-day across South or Central America.
What are the main issues facing Latin American clients – and how does your team help clients address them?
(SG) Increasingly, asset managers are looking to global markets for liquidity and best execution. Local market investment restrictions have been lifted offering a wide variety of investment options for LATAM managers. As a result, local firms are seeking to replace outdated, in-house solutions and automate manual processes. Asset managers want to streamline all business lines under one ‘umbrella’ system that can support both domestic and international investment operations.
With Charles River IMS, clients can run all processes and workflows from a single consolidated platform – eliminating the need to manage multiple systems (oftentimes as many as five or six). Charles River IMS also helps clients support region-specific security types and associated workflows, including Mexican corporate and government bonds and Brazilian government bonds, such as Letras Financeiras do Tesouro, and CDI-linked debentures.
What trends do you see on the horizon affecting Latin American asset managers?
(SG) Although adoption of electronic trading continues to be slow, it has definitely arrived in Latin America. Increased electronic trading will consequently drive trader and fund manager demand for additional liquidity options, transaction cost analysis (TCA), and sophisticated systems.
Given these trends, what are your future plans for supporting the region?
(SG) We will continue to invest in the region, providing products and services that address clients’ local language, compliance and business needs. We also help our clients eliminate operational risk and develop efficient workflows by automating processes between the buy-side and sell-side, as well as internal workflows. A recent example is our Virtual Private Network connectivity option that provides a secure and low-cost way for smaller or remote firms to access the Charles River FIX Network via the internet in order to overcome telco challenges in the region.
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