SST Awards 2018: Best Sell-Side Web-Based Development Environment—Pershing, a BNY Mellon Company

“If you look at the market and some of our competitors, some of them offer too much choice and it becomes confusing for clients,” says Michelle Feinstein, Pershing’s director of product strategy and client engagement. “Some of them will also have a closed architecture and will try to limit the client into only using one platform. Pershing doesn’t do that.” 

According to Feinstein, what sets Pershing apart from other similar web-based development environments is that NetX360 offers extensive flexibility and provides clients with a choice in terms of using the Pershing technology platform, as well as the firm’s data and its application programming interface (API). 

Pershing processes approximately 60 million messages each month through its various APIs. The company’s API store offers what it describes as a “self-service experience,” where clients can pick certain business processes and implement the corresponding APIs. If they have the talent in-house they can roll out those APIs, and then layer on top of them the user experiences that they desire. Pershing currently has over 55 clients and 37 third-party providers actively in the store.  

The firm also offers Components, its next-generation technology that can be accessed through the NetXServices platform. “We allow clients to take the corresponding user interfaces that they are interested in and plug them into their own experiences,” explains Feinstein. “What sets us apart is that flexibility—we just want to be the power behind what they are trying to create.”

Pershing is currently working on rolling out the next version of its NetX360 platform. It will be a big initiative in terms of offering the market a unified experience across brokerage, advisory and bank custody businesses, according to Feinstein. The company will be strengthening the foundational capabilities within the platform and focusing on operational efficiencies, including “offering a client-centric experience, consistent asset classification, and deepening our integration with our own in-house solutions,” Feinstein says. 

It will also be creating an integration portal or hub, where clients can access APIs and components in one place, similar to an App Store experience.