Sapient Buys Derivatives Consulting Group

Boston-based IT consulting firm Sapient has acquired London-based Derivatives Consulting Group Limited, a provider of derivatives consulting and outsourcing services to investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and commercial banking clients, including derivative operations metrics, the result of benchmark surveys of buy-side and sell-side firms.
DCG will become part of Sapient's Trading and Risk Management practice. It will add operations benchmarking, derivatives and process expertise, operations support, technology services and off-shore capabilities to the group.

"Today's volatile markets and increasingly strict regulatory environments make this an opportune time to add DCG's capabilities to our TRM practice," said Sapient president and chief executive officer Alan Herrick.'"Regulatory scrutiny has resulted in new demands on clients to maintain compliance and reduce the risk associated with the growing complexity and volumes of these transactions."

Sapient's acquisition of DCG is supported by a number of trends: The worldwide derivatives market reached $677 trillion notional in 2007 and continues to grow dramatically, according to Celent.'While derivatives volumes have grown, there has been a lag in operations infrastructure investments. This has created greater demand for operations support and technology.'At the same time, government agencies such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.K. Financial Services Authority have increased the regulation and scrutiny of derivatives transactions, further compounding the existing operational challenges.

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Publish Date: August 08, 2008