SS&C happy as a relatively silent partner

If one company has been relatively quietly growing its presence in the Australian superannuation sector it has been SS&C.

The company has been operating in Australia for decades partnering with and servicing superannuation funds, but the changing face of the sector particularly with respect to member administration has brought the US-based company to the fore.

SS&C has been particularly in the news because of the December announcement that Insignia Financial had entered into an agreement with the company to largely outsource the underpinnings of the Insignia Master Trust business.

That transaction sees the transfer of close to 1400 Insignia personnel to SS&C but, most importantly, it will see SS&C drive a a consolidation of the multiple operating platforms which had evolved within Insignia’s Master Trust business.

Visiting Australia last week, on far from his first visit, SS&C founder and chairman, Bill Stone signalled that the Insignia deal was indicative of and had validated his company’s lengthy involvement in the Australian financial services sector.

He said that the Australian superannuation system is the envy of the world and as the system had grown so had the market for SS&C’s services, particularly as funds had sought to outsource.

“When places get bigger and bigger you get cost build up and sometimes the cost is more than the value of the services,” he said. “It is very difficult for organisations to pivot to changes in processes in a way that would enable them to grow and really manage their costs.”

Stone continues to see Australia as a growth market for SS&C, noting that the company had started off with a very small presence in the form of its hi-portfolio offering.

“When we first came we had a very small presence – HiPortfolio – gave us a nice footprint here but that was all asset management,” he said, noting that the company’s presence in the superannuation space had broadened, something which was reinforced by its acquisition of DST in 2018.

Stone says the objective has always been for SS&C to be a bedrock for its clients when they are pursuing business processing outsourcing.

“It can be very complex and tedious in some ways so you want to have efficient technologies and the ability to deliver what we’ve been asked to do,” he said.

“What SS&C wants is to be expert in what we do and set a standard that would be very difficult to emulate,” Stone said, noting that the firm spends US$500 million a year on technology.