Assessing how to enhance cross-asset operations capabilities to support more complex investment products and boost overall business performance

The global investment management industry is experiencing a deep structural change influenced by changing investor behaviour, margin compression, complexity of the regulatory environment, and the fast pace of technological development. Global assets under management topped US$147tn at mid-2025, and asset managers must cope with higher expectations on investment products while simultaneously improving their operations’ efficiency and ability to withstand the impact of regulatory events. The historical operation model, based on asset classes (equities, fixed income, and cash), is not sufficient to respond to the complexity of today’s investment products, including multi-asset strategies, derivatives-based portfolios, private markets, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration, hybrid (public–private) approaches, and tokenised real-world assets. This paper explores why integrated cross-asset capabilities are so important as a strategic enabler of innovation, scalability, and sustainable business performance in current asset management. It examines how legacy, fragmented, and inefficient systems and workflows, coupled with manual processing and inconsistent data architectures, drive operational inefficiencies, increase risk, and inhibit product innovation. The paper goes on to illustrate the operational impact of private markets expansion, ESG reporting and tokenisation, and the need for integrated processing, real-time data visibility, and better governance. The paper draws on both industry research and operating experience to recommend a five-dimension framework for assessment, covering process efficiency, technology architecture, data governance, risk and compliance, and organisational effectiveness, and describes transformation priorities for companies: platform modernisation, straight-through processing, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled workflows, blockchain interoperability, and improved governance models. It also explains how companies can redesign operating models to support integrated cross-asset capabilities without losing sight of standardisation and asset class-specific expertise. The paper concludes that cross-asset is no longer a back-office function but a competitive capability. Companies that are proactive in building integrated operating models, automation, data management, and organisation will have a better chance at managing complexity, improving product innovation, enhancing risk management, and maintaining profits in a constantly changing world of investment. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.