GBST’s wealth management administration platform launches in UAE

By Leandra Monteiro

GBST has expanded its footprint with the availability of its wealth management administration platform, Composer, in the UAE, suitable for new employee workplace savings schemes, fund platforms, wealth management and insurance providers.

The Middle East region has recently introduced BOD-49 regulatory changes, where all fees must be explicitly shown to the customer, and employee workplace saving schemes that both closely align with existing UK regulations.

According to the latest Insight Discovery Middle East Investment Panorama (MEIP) report, there has been a 56% increase in the usage of fund platforms in the UAE over the past year, a trend that the UK has experienced over the last 10 years. As a leading UK technology provider, expanding its wealth management product offering to the Middle East and appointing local representation was a logical step in the Company’s next phase of growth and expansion.

Head of EMEA at GBST, David Simpson, said, “We are continuing to see price and margin squeezes making it even more important to focus on reduction in the total cost of technology ownership. Our wealth management administration platform has undergone an impressive technology transformation in order to support the future growth and evolution of financial services organisations, while ensuring the need for operational efficiency and risk reduction are met.”

“We’ve taken over 30 years of product and business functionality and invested heavily in the underlying technology stack and user experience to bring a globally accessible, digitally and cloud enabled, secure, compliant, and scalable solution to the Middle East region. We’ve managed to lower the total cost of ownership through the incorporation of microservices, open integration and APIs, auto-scaling, automated testing and deployment, and true platform agility. According to a leading independent consultancy, Composer has the widest range of investment products across multiple distribution channels able to be administered on a single platform.”

Composer is well suited to the Middle East market, helping customers launch new investment platforms or qualifying schemes for employee savings. It is a robust SaaS technology platform for retail investment solutions across advised, direct, and workplace distribution, and across its current APAC and EMEA client base, already helps customers meet their regulatory responsibilities.