The Nordic COO Roundtable brought together a diverse group of operational leaders for a candid and wide-ranging discussion about the forces shaping their organisations. Over the course of the session organised by HedgeNordic, IG Prime and CWAN (formerly Enfusion), participants explored the technological change sweeping through the industry, the growing pressure of regulation, the rise of SMAs, the evolving relationship with data, and the promise and limitations of AI. The conversation revealed an industry that is both energised and strained, eager to modernise but cautious about taking the wrong step at the wrong time.
A Market Approaching a Technological Turning Point
The discussion opened with the question of what keeps COOs awake at night, and for many the immediate answer related to the rapid pace of technological evolution. Several participants described the market as sitting close to a tipping point, with established monolithic OMS and EMS platforms struggling to keep up with new demands and the agile, younger vendors offering lighter, and more modern architectures, often SaaS. These newcomers appear more capable of responding quickly as regulation grows and portfolio structures become more varied.
Despite this, firms are not rushing towards wholesale transformation. Many are opting for a slower, incremental journey in which small improvements accumulate over time. Some have recently pushed further into STP across trade generation, allocation and reconciliation, and are now dealing with the remaining edges of manual work. Others continue to rely on internally built tools, often in Excel or proprietary code, because their portfolios or risk models are too specialised to fit comfortably into any single vendor solution.
What unites these approaches is the belief that modernisation must be purposeful. Technology is an enabler, but it works only when teams understand their own systems deeply. Several COOs described the need for recruits who combine operational literacy with technical fluency, especially in areas like scripting, APIs and data management. The days when operations could function in isolation from technology appear to be ending.
Data as the Core Operational Asset
Although the conversation frequently returned to technology, the most consistent theme was the centrality of data. Participants agreed that clean, reliable and accessible data has become the lifeblood of operational efficiency. It can no longer be treated as an output of systems, but as the foundation upon which every process rests.
Many firms are now building internal data warehouses or consolidating pricing and trade feeds from Bloomberg, FactSet and OMSproviders into unified internal structures. This allows them to validate data across multiple sources, highlight anomalies quickly and tailor reporting to the exact needs of PMs, risk teams and regulators. Others are further ahead, already visualising this centralised data for teams across the business.
There was widespread recognition that high-quality data cannot be created by technology alone. It requires close involvement from the teams who understand its meaning. For this reason, COOs argued that data should be visible throughout the organisation, ensuring that errors are caught not only by technical staff but also by the practitioners who rely on that information for investment decisions, risk oversight and client reporting.
Regulation and the Weight of Constant Change
A significant part of the session focused on regulation, which several participants described as “a tsunami of requirements”. DORA was mentioned repeatedly as an example of the scale and reach of modern regulatory expectations. Even very small managers are expected to document the details of widely used providers and maintain structures that match those of far larger institutions.
The group reflected on how difficult it is to interpret new rules in their early stages. Consultants and outsourced compliance partners often take overly cautious positions, and regulators rarely provide practical guidance that reflects proportionality. As a result, firms frequently begin by handling new rules manually simply to understand what the regulation intends, before attempting to embed it in systems.
Despite the burden, some COOs noted unexpected benefits. DORA, for example, forced organisations to review legacy systems, clarify ownership of internal tools and uncover dormant vendor relationships. The exercise became an opportunity to rationalise technology stacks and strengthen governance. Still, the broader sentiment was that regulation is contributing to consolidation pressures, especially for small and mid-sized managers who must comply with frameworks built with far larger firms in mind.
The Rise of SMAs and the Shift in Investor Expectations
One of the most strategically important discussions centred on the growing prominence of SMAs. Although some firms prefer to avoid them because of the operational overhead, others now see them as central to asset gathering. For new launches in particular, SMAs appear to dominate allocator interest, and for many sub-$250 million managers they have become the primary route to scaling AUM.
The appeal is understandable. Institutions value the transparency, control of cash and flexibility that SMAs offer. Some can customise leverage or structure risk in a way that pooled funds cannot easily enable. The group agreed that the demand for SMAs is likely to continue and that even firms without SMAs today are beginning to build the infrastructure required for them.
At the same time, participants observed that SMAs are less operationally burdensome than they once were. Improvements in Prime Brokerage (PB) reporting, APIs and reconciliation tools mean the marginal effort of adding an SMA has fallen, provided that systems chosen are flexible enough to support multiple account structures, carve-outs and varied reporting obligations. Several COOs also challenged the belief that SMA capital is unstable. In their experience, SMA investors are no more likely to withdraw capital quickly than fund investors, provided performance is robust and communication is clear.
The main complexities relate to onboarding. New SMAs often bring new PBs, administrators or file formats, and some investors lack relationships with local Nordic counterparties. These factors require a thoughtful operational design and a willingness to adapt workflows, but none of the participants believed that SMAs were likely to become less prevalent. If anything, they appear to be an increasingly permanent part of the landscape.
AI as a Useful Assistant but Not a Decision Maker
Towards the end of the session, the group turned to the future. AI has been a growing topic across the industry, yet the sentiment in the room was measured. Many saw AI today as operating at the equivalent of a junior analyst. It can summarise documents, help draft regulatory interpretations, answer structured questions and even generate coding frameworks for internal developers. What it cannot do reliably is make decisions without expert oversight.
Participants shared several examples of AI producing confident but incorrect outputs. This reinforced the view that AI should be constrained within controlled environments containing known datasets. Used in this way, it can speed up research, reduce repetitive work and support reconciliations, but it is not yet trusted for anything that directly influences investment positions or regulatory reporting.
There was also hesitation around allowing vendors to train their AI systems on client data. This raises confidentiality and competitive concerns and has slowed the development of more advanced AI-driven insights from providers. Most firms are therefore experimenting internally, focusing on efficiency gains rather than transformative change.
The consensus was that AI will reshape the mix of skills required in operations. Routine tasks are likely to be automated, and teams will need more individuals who understand programming, data and model validation. Hiring strategies are already shifting, as COOs hesitate to replace back-office staff on a like-for-like basis until the longer-term impact of automation becomes clearer.
A Community Looking Ahead
The roundtable concluded with a shared desire to continue the conversation. Participants expressed interest in forming a Nordic COO network to exchange ideas, benchmark approaches and support one another as the operating environment grows more complex. The interaction throughout the session demonstrated the value of peer-to-peer dialogue, especially at a time when the pace of change is accelerating and the consequences of missteps are growing.
Across all topics, from data architecture and regulation to SMAs and AI, the discussion pointed to an industry in transition. Nordic investment managers are adapting to a new era in which operational excellence is inseparable from technological sophistication, regulatory literacy and data discipline. The firms that succeed will be those that treat operations as a strategic function, capable of shaping the resilience and competitiveness of the entire organisation.
