BCI implements industry leading centralized global trading framework

Victoria, BC, Canada, Feb. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) has released an industry-first white paper detailing our innovative centralized trading framework which provides clients with greater portfolio returns, lower fees, and allows for improved risk management.

"As BCI transitioned successfully to an active in-house global asset manager, we built a value-added, modern centralized trading framework," said Daniel Garant, executive vice president & global head, public markets. "Our framework was designed with a cross-asset mindset to enhance portfolio returns, lower costs and better manage risk. It was imperative that our platform deliver best trade execution, as well as have strong governance to help influence ESG practices with our global financial partners, in addition to streamlining processes, efficiencies, and scalability for our continued growth."

Our centralized, end-to-end trading approach ensures connectivity at the highest levels and enables one cross-asset desk to execute for the entire corporation. Having a complete picture of trading activities, fees, and data allows for better aggregated pricing on total transactions with partners, and further allows for better decision making grounded in centralized data sources. 

"We are pleased to be working closely with BCI in the provision of front- to back-office capabilities that help facilitate and accelerate BCI's ambitions to generate enhanced performance and greater cost efficiencies for their clients. Centralized trading exemplifies their commitment to achieving these goals, and we are excited to continue solutioning for their needs as they continue to grow."  said Dane Fannin, global head of securities finance at Northern Trust, a leading provider of asset servicing to institutional investors.

Promoting collaboration in what is typically a siloed function at many large institutional asset managers, BCI's centralized trading framework also shifts the role of the trader from operations to advisor, allowing trading professionals to add significant value to the investment process.

"Joining BCI at a time when the corporation transitioned to active management allowed me to lead a trading team implementing processes and frameworks from scratch. There has long been an established, back, middle and front office approach to trading, coming in to create something new without legacy frameworks to constrain us was very exciting," said Samir Dhrolia, senior managing director, global derivatives, trading and indexing portfolio management. "The executive management team at BCI empowered us to deliver a world-class solution and we've been able to draw top talent from a very competitive market to Victoria to work on this."

As outlined in our Centralized Trading White Paper, the key benefits of a centralized trading framework include:

• Cross-asset view that enhances portfolio returns, reduces costs and allows for better risk management
• A central voice facilitated via BCI's One Wallet platform, a relationship management tool that manages a total view of payments across BCI, negotiating with external parties for the best possible results for clients on commissions, deal flows and third-party services. This is increasingly important as BCI's operations spans the globe with teams in Victoria, Vancouver, New York, and this year, London, UK 
• Fosters a performance-focused team, and offers an environment where employees collaborate across the portfolio management, cross asset risk and liquidity functions
• Streamlines processes, effectiveness, and scalability for continued growth
• Optimizes management oversight, and strengthens legal, compliance and operational controls thus reducing a variety of operational and investment risks

About BCI:

British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is amongst the largest institutional investors in Canada with $211.1 billion under management, as of March 31, 2022. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Vancouver and New York City, BCI is invested in: fixed income and private debt; public and private equity; infrastructure and renewable resources; as well as real estate equity and real estate debt through our independently operated platform company QuadReal Property Group. With our global outlook, we seek investment opportunities that convert savings into productive capital that will meet our clients' risk and return requirements over time. This compels us to integrate long-term ESG matters into all investment decisions and activities. BCI's clients include pension plans representing over 715,000 plan members, insurance funds providing more than three million Autoplan insurance policies annually, benefits coverage to more than two million workers and 225,000 companies, and special purpose funds within B.C.'s public sector. Founded in 1999, BCI is a statutory corporation created by the Public Sector Pension Plans Act. For more information, visit our website bci.ca or follow us on LinkedIn.