Marc Schröter on IBOR's Unfinished Promise (Part 1/5)
- Ebbe Kjaersbo
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
In this first episode of our five-part series, we sit down with Marc Schröter, Chief Product & Technology Officer at SimCorp, to talk about the Investment Book of Record. Where it started, why it still matters, and why so many firms haven't got there yet.
Key Takeaways
IBOR isn't a feature SimCorp bolted on, the platform was designed around it from day one, over 15 years ago.
Real-time means every event - orders, fills, allocations, corporate actions - is instantly visible across front, middle, and back office on a single platform.
Many firms have adopted the IBOR concept, but still struggle to achieve a unified view, especially across public and private markets.
The firms keeping private and public assets in separate systems are missing the full picture on positions, exposure, and risk.
Full Transcript
Marc Schröter:
Yeah, of course you always celebrate, but if we can be honest, I think, frankly, in my view, of course, SimCorp One Investment Book of Record has always been the market-leading IBOR in the industry.
And to be honest, for us, it's how the platform has been designed from the inception, 15, 20 years ago. It's always been about making sure that all events — whether it's a new order, a fill coming in, an allocation being made, or an event in the back office or a corporate action — that all events are always reflected in real time on the platform, available to all users, whether they are in front office, middle office, risk, or back office.
So for me, this has always been the case. We put a lot of effort into promoting the IBOR term for some time, some years ago — I think it was probably also 10, 15 years ago. So in that sense, IBOR is somehow synonymous with SimCorp and SimCorp One.
So in that sense, it's not really a new thing, and it's not something I've been thinking that much about. It's just how we think about it. If you want to have the best foundation for making your investments, for your risk assessments, that's essentially how you need to design your platform. That's essentially how you want to optimize your operating model as an investment manager.
So in that sense, it's always been our focus. It will remain our focus.
Looking at the industry, I think a lot of people have adopted that operating model with this IBOR, but still a lot of people are also struggling, still. And I think, in particular, we see that now across private and public markets where people typically keep that in separate systems, which means you don't really have that single view across your entire firm — what's your positions, what's your exposure, what's your risks.
And we provide that. So in that sense, worrying about how to win that award again, I don't know, but I think we still have some edge there, at least compared to some of the other platforms in the market.
This is Part 1 of our 5-part interview series with Marc Schröter. Next week: Marc Schröter on AI From the Bottom Up (Part 2/5).
