On 11 March, we sponsored in Luxembourg the roundtable discussion ‘Doing More with Less’, hosted by ITnation, bringing together professionals from the investment fund administration sector to exchange perspectives on current operational challenges and the role of technology in enabling industry transformation.

The discussion highlighted the growing pressure on fund administrators to modernize operating models in response to increasing regulatory complexity, higher client expectations for transparency and more frequent reporting requirements.

Participants agreed that while automation and artificial intelligence are rapidly evolving, technology alone cannot address the industry’s operational bottlenecks. Meaningful transformation requires organizations to first strengthen the foundations of their operating models, including data structures, governance frameworks and core processes.

In the center of the discussion was the challenge of fragmented systems and duplicated datasets, which continue to limit organizations’ ability to establish a reliable, unified view of data. Integrating client, market, internal and regulatory data was widely identified as a key step toward improving operational efficiency and enabling scalable automation.

The discussion also explored emerging use cases for AI in areas such as due diligence, reconciliation, and operational validation. However, participants emphasized that robust data governance and centralized data architecture remain essential prerequisites for successfully deploying these technologies at scale.

The roundtable reaffirmed that sustainable transformation in fund administration requires a balanced approach combining process optimization, strong data foundations and targeted technology adoption.

We thank all participants for their valuable insights and engagement, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue with industry peers in future initiatives.