The current global economic crisis has had its most significant impact on the financial services sector, which has historically driven much of the growth in the outsourcing industry. According to Sanjay Kulatunga, Director Amba Research, although this has resulted in some short-term impact on growth in the outsourcing industry, from which Amba Research has not been immune, the medium and longer-term outlook for the investment research outsourcing sector looks positive as outsourcing takes a more strategic position within the equity research and asset management industries.
The market crisis has forced the financial sector to re-examine its outsourcing strategies. In a white paper entitled “Black September: Fifteen emerging trends in capital markets” that was published by Amba Research in the midst of the crisis, it was highlighted that the structural changes caused by the downturn in the financial markets will result in more work being outsourced. We are now seeing significant interest from large potential clients, especially among institutional asset managers who seek to effectively maintain and expand their research programmes in the midst of shrinking coverage from the sell-side, stated Mr. Kulatunga.
One area of growth for Amba, contrary to the overall industry trend, has been in the quantitative services business. Amba’s ‘quants’ business which actively hires engineering, science, and mathematics graduates from Colombo and Moratuwa Universities, provides services in the areas of statistical modeling, trading strategy analysis, derivatives pricing and Risk management. According to Dr. Naveen Gunawardane, Head of Quantitative Research at Amba Research Lanka, Risk Management is an area which has come into particular prominence in the current environment.
Over the last five and a half years since Colombo was chosen as its first outsourcing location, Amba Research has become a leading provider of investment research support services to the global capital markets industry.
Amba works with clients in all the world’s major financial centers, working with over half of the major global investment banks, investment management firms, alternative asset managers, commercial banks and other financial services firms. Amba research is rated as the country’s foremost Knowledge Process Outsourcing provider in the financial services industry.
In its brief existence Amba has trained over 340 young Sri Lankan finance professionals in providing investment research to developed global financial markets. According to Dr. Kemal de Soysa, Country Delivery Head, staff training at Amba Research is based on the best practices followed by global investment banks and asset managers. Amba Research Lanka maintains very strong bonds with local educational institutions, such as the universities and professional educational bodies at which many of ARL’s all-Sri Lankan staff have been educated. We strongly encourage staff involvement in the continued development of financial studies at these institutions stated Dr. de Soysa
According to Mr. Kulatunga Amba’s growth prospects in Sri Lanka will get a significant boost as a direct result of the end of the war. This will in turn result in investor confidence in outsourcing more high-end financial services to Sri Lanka. “We believe that Amba will be able to significantly increase its operations in Sri Lanka and provide employment not only to local, financial professionals but young Sri Lankans returning back to the country looking for a career in the capital markets space” stated Mr. Kulatunga.
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