Brown Brothers Harriman & Co (BBH) has appointed Michael McGovern as head of its investor services fintech (financial technology) business.
In this newly created position, Mr. McGovern, a BBH managing director based in New York, will be responsible for the company’s investor services fintech offerings which, among other things, provide in-house technology to asset managers and financial institutions.
Mr. McGovern tells Asia Asset Mangement in an exclusive interview that BBH has long been offering digital solutions that empower clients to make better real-time decisions, manage business risk, and streamline investment operations, and adds that by bringing the firm’s data and technology solutions together as one set of services, it can optimise its delivery to clients.
“We’re essentially taking the innovations we created to run our core investor services business and opening them up to clients to use as their own, helping them introduce efficiencies to their process and deliver on their own business strategies. The impact is amplified through a more aligned organisation,” he says.
Mr. McGovern will focus on data strategy and client information delivery channels. According to BBH, these are two areas asset managers and financial institutions are increasingly looking to leverage on to generate revenue, control costs, and for product enhancements.
“Like all asset managers, Asian managers are focused on streamlining their operating models and improving the timeliness and quality of their data,” he explains to AAM. “The greatest technology needs for Asian asset managers today centre around capturing, integrating and delivering data from disparate processes into their core front office applications.”
Mr. McGovern was previously BBH’s chief information officer and head of systems. Before joining BBH in 2013, he was with Citi Transaction Services for over 14 years, serving as managing director and global technology head of securities and fund services.
“Mike’s experience applying information technology across the borders of front, middle, and back offices is rare and differentiated. It’s the kind of competence our forward-thinking clients can put to use with today’s new and emerging technologies,” Geoffrey Cook, the BBH partner responsible for fintech, says in the July 7 statement.
According to Mr. McGovern, BBH’s focus on asset managers and financial institutions means much of what the company develops for itself is directly relevant to its clients.
“Clients can use these innovations as their own, whether or not they also use BBH for financial or business process outsourcing services,” he says in the statement. “This is a great time and a great opportunity to help clients achieve their strategic objectives with digital and data solutions.”
Meanwhile, BBH Managing Directors Brian Condon and Lorrie Gordon have been appointed to succeed Mr. McGovern as co-heads of technology.
Mr. Condon joined BBH in 2016 from JP Morgan where he held positions including chief technology officer of the bank’s global funds services business. Ms. Gordon has been with BBH since 1994, holding senior positions in Europe and the US.
BBH had US$4.8 trillion in assets under custody and administration as of December 30, 2016.
