A recent survey released by SimCorp, a leading provider of investment management solutions and services for the global financial services industry, has revealed that most asset managers view the retirement of Barclays POINT as negative to them and the fixed income industry. The survey was conducted during a webinar hosted by SimCorp and Citisoft titled “Transitioning Away from POINT - Understand your Options.’ The respondents use Barclays POINT predominantly for risk analytics, fixed income, performance attribution and portfolio optimization.

In December 2015, Barclays agreed to sell its risk analytics and index solutions business. Now that the acquisition is complete, POINT will only be supported for a brief time, meaning all Barclays POINT clients will soon need a new solution in place to ensure business continuity.

The survey, which polled 114 individuals from 60 firms across North America revealed that:

• Nearly 90% of respondents do not believe or are unsure that Bloomberg PORT, the proposed alternative to POINT, will fulfill their fixed income requirements
• 75% are planning to initiate a search or have an initiative underway to replace Barclays POINT
• More than 50% see the acquisition of Barclay’s POINT as an opportunity to re-assess front office fixed income support

“The acquisition of Barclays POINT presents a sea change to the fixed income community,” explains Marc Mallett, Vice President, Sales and Product Management, SimCorp North America. “While the high level of concern does not come as a surprise, it is interesting to see the optimism of those that view this market event as an impetus for front office transformation. This is an opportunity for the over 200 POINT clients across the globe not just to replace POINT, but to address some of their other current inefficiencies and data challenges, for instance stemming from disparate systems in the front office.”

“The timeline of the acquisition does not support a ‘wait and see’ approach, these firms are in immediate need of a comprehensive transition strategy,” said David Bates, Principal at Citisoft. “As next steps are assessed, they should consider what functionality needs to be replaced. POINT is often employed across various front- and middle-office functions, so it is likely that many firms will require a single or multi-platform replacement model to support agile investment decision-making, risk handling and performance measurement going forward.”

David Bates has been at the fore of the discussion since the plan to retire Barclays POINT  was announced in late 2015. He has authored numerous blogs and surveyed the Barclays POINT user community. The report of the findings can be found here.