How to win the 2012 Service Provider Awards
AsianInvestor magazine will conduct its annual Service Provider Awards selection process in September and October. The results will be announced online during the week of October 22 and the awards dinner will be held on Thursday, November 22 at The Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong.
Here we outline the process for four award brackets: Asset Services, Prime Broking, Audit/Legal/Indexing, and Trading & Execution. We also include here the full list of award categories.
ASSET SERVICES
To win an AsianInvestor award for asset services involves three steps:
1. Indication of interest (IOI). Tell us which categories (see below) your organisation would like to compete in. With a total of 16 categories plus two marquee awards, we will limit each organisation to five IOIs, so think about where your true strengths lie. Our aim is to give awards that are comprehensive, authoritative and valued; it’s not ‘prizes for all’. IOIs must be received by noon on Friday, August 24. Please contact us to ensure your IOIs have been received. Note that you can also pitch for the two marquee awards regardless of the quota. Please make all submissions to [email protected].
2. Written pitch. Firms will be asked to submit a written pitch if they have submitted an indication of interest. This material should be considered public. It lays out the case for why your organisation deserves the award. All submissions must be in Word document format.
No supplemental material will be accepted except for client testimonials from buy-side clients based in Asia-Pacific. These will be treated with strict confidence and will be considered off the record, but we do need to know the name of the client. We will also accept referrals instead of something in writing.
Submissions (not including testimonials) are limited to 1,000 words. If it exceeds 1,000 words, we will delete anything following the thousandth word. You should not feel the need to fill it out to the maximum word count; clarity of argument is more important than length.
However, you do need to submit a separate pitch for each award you bid for.
We welcome information, where appropriate, regarding year-on-year growth in your business’ revenue and assets under custody (or relevant service activity) in terms of clientele, client segments and addressable assets; your win rate; key new mandates; client retention ratio; product innovation; infrastructure improvements; credit ratings and your capital structure; market leadership & advocacy; investment into your business. We will consider activities from Q4, 2011, to the present.
Mere size isn’t enough: we want to know what you have done for your clients and for the market in 2011 that makes this your standout year.
The two marquee awards are Asset Servicer of the Year, for a firm, and Custodian Banker of the Year, for an individual. You do not need to include these in your list of five categories. They are additional awards open to anyone who wants to compete. For Custodian Banker of the Year, we don’t require a big pitch; a small note with some relevant details about the person’s leadership will do.
Pitches must be submitted to us by noon on Friday, September 14. We will not be accepting late entries. Feel free to contact us to ensure we have received your submission.
3. Interviews. These will take place in Hong Kong over the course of the following dates: October 4-5, and October 8-13. Due to our tight schedule, we are not able to conduct interviews in person in Singapore.
Interviewing journalists: Georgina Lee, Jame DiBiasio
Interviews can be set up in advance but we must receive your written pitch on time for the interview to go ahead. Interviews are off the record and are meant to put your formal pitch in context.
We are not holding interviews for Custodian Banker of the Year. We will rely on our judgment in the course of other interviews to decide this.
Note that all awards cover Asia-Pacific markets unless otherwise noted.
1. Best global custodian for asset owners (asset servicing, clearing, settlement, cash management, data provision including performance and compliance reporting)
2. Best global custodian for mutual funds (ibid, including Asia-based funds and global funds tapping Asian capital markets)
3. Best fund administrator (fund accounting, transfer agency) – long-only
4. Best fund administrator – hedge funds/private equity
5. Best securities lending
6. Best collateral management
7. Best transition management services
8. Best outsourcing services (middle office, risk management, trade processing)
9. Best direct custody (or sub-custody or local custody; local market access and asset servicing) – Japan
10. Best direct custody – China
11. Best direct custody – India
12. Best direct custody – South Korea
13. Best direct custody – Southeast Asia
14. Best direct custody – Taiwan
15. Best direct custody – Australia/New Zealand
16. Best Asian bank for cross-border custody
17. Marquee award: Asset service provider of the year (bank)
18. Marquee award: Custodian banker of the year (individual)
Note: AsianInvestor does not cover corporate finance-related business, because our mission is to inform asset owners and investment managers. Therefore we do not have awards for depository receipts, corporate trust or broker clearing.
PRIME BROKING
To win an AsianInvestor award for prime broking involves two steps:
1. Send us a written pitch by noon on Friday, September 14 for each award you wish to compete for. This material should be considered public. It lays out the case for why your organisation deserves the award. All submissions must be in Word document format.
No supplemental material will be accepted except for client testimonials from alternative-investment clients based in Asia-Pacific. These will be treated with strict confidence and will be considered off the record, but we do need to know the name of the client. We will also accept referrals instead of something in writing.
Submissions (not including testimonials) are limited to 1,000 words. If it exceeds 1,000 words, we will delete anything following the thousandth word. You should not feel the need to fill it out to the maximum word count; clarity of argument is more important than length.
However, you do need to submit a separate pitch for each award you bid for.
We welcome information, where appropriate, regarding year-on-year growth in your business in terms of clientele, client segments, and addressable assets; your win rate; key new mandates; client retention ratio; product innovation; infrastructure improvements; credit ratings and your capital structure; market leadership & advocacy; investment into your business. We will consider activities from Q4 2011 to the present.
For individual awards, we don’t need as big a pitch; a note on their accomplishments and demonstrated leadership will do.
2. Interviews. These will take place in Hong Kong during the week of September 24-28.
Interviewing journalist: Yvonne Chan
These can be set up in advance but we must receive your written pitch on time for the interview to go ahead. Interviews are off the record and are meant to put your formal pitch in context.
We are not holding interviews for the individual awards. We will rely on other pitch meetings to make a judgment.
Note that all awards cover Asia-Pacific markets unless otherwise noted.
1. Best prime broker for securities lending
2. Best client service
3. Best capital introductions
4. Best derivatives and synthetics
5. Best capital introductions specialist (individual)
6. Best prime broking consultant (individual)
7. Best salesperson (individual)
8. Marquee award: Best prime broker in Asia
AUDIT/LEGAL/INDEXING
To win an AsianInvestor award for these categories involves two steps:
1. Send us a written pitch by noon on Friday, September 14 for each award you wish to compete for. We will not accept late submissions. This material should be considered public. It lays out the case for why your organisation deserves the award. All submissions must be in Word document format.
No supplemental material will be accepted except for client testimonials from alternative-investment clients based in Asia-Pacific. These will be treated with strict confidence and will be considered off the record, but we do need to know the name of the client. We will also accept referrals instead of something in writing.
Submissions (not including testimonials) are limited to 1,000 words. If it exceeds 1,000 words, we will delete anything following the thousandth word. You should not feel the need to fill it out to the maximum word count; clarity of argument is more important than length.
However, you do need to submit a separate pitch for each award you bid for.
These three categories are quite distinct.
For accountancies, we want to hear about your efforts in taxation, advice, industry leadership and research. For law firms, we welcome information about innovative work on products, lobbying, fund formation, and advice. For indexing vendors, we want to know about client wins and retention, year-on-year changes to assets against your benchmarks, innovative product, overcoming regulatory hurdles, and changes to market classifications.
2. Interviews. These will take place in Hong Kong during the week of October 8-13, exact dates to be determined.
Interviewing journalist: Joe Marsh
These can be set up in advance but we must receive your written pitch on time for the interview to go ahead. Interviews are off the record and are meant to put your formal pitch in context.
Note that all awards cover Asia-Pacific markets unless otherwise noted.
1. Best auditor, funds advice
2. Best auditor, tax services for funds
3. Best onshore law firm for asset management, Asia ex-Japan
4. Best onshore law firm for asset management, Japan
5. Best law firm for alternative assets
6. Best offshore law firm
7. Best compliance consulting provider
8. Best provider of benchmark indices
9. Best provider of tradable indices
10. Best local provider of indices
TRADING & EXECUTION
AsianInvestor is conducting a survey of buy-side equity traders covering Asia-Pacific markets. The results of this exercise will be published in the October magazine. We will have the results internally by the end of September, and we will use these to generate a shortlist of candidates for these awards.
Shortlisted firms will be asked then to provide us with a written pitch that contains information we can consider public. It will be followed by interviews in Hong Kong during the week of October 15-19. Interviews are off the record and meant to put your formal pitch in context.
Interviewing journalists: Georgina Lee, Jame DiBiasio
For the time being we welcome your support of our survey but do not require any input with regard to the awards. If you have not been contacted by AsianInvestor regarding the survey, but would like more information, please let us know.
The awards do not correspond exactly to the survey questionnaire. The categories will be:
1. Best in sales trading
2. Best in research
3. Best in program trading
4. Best in electronic trading
5. Best provider of dark liquidity
6. Best in algorithms
7. Most innovative smart-order routing
8. Best onshore broker, Asia-Pacific
9. Most innovative stock exchange
10. Best alternative trading venue
11. Best execution-management system
12. Best order-management system
13. Most innovative buy-side (long-only)
14. Most innovative buy-side (hedge fund)
15. Marquee award: Best sell-side broker, Asia-Pacific