Sell-Side Technology Awards 2022: Best sell-side newcomer (vendor or product)—SIX

OVERVIEW

As more taxes are introduced across the financial services industry and the due diligence process becomes ever more complex, it is clear that buy-side firms and—arguably even more so—sell-side firms require enriched tax data on an instrument level that takes into account investment portfolio structure, as well as their specific client profiles, in order to optimize their portfolios by making tax-intelligent investment decisions. Following the launch of SIX Tax Score in September 2021, SIX Tax on Instrument is the second service from SIX that directly targets advisors and underscores how SIX is tapping into additional parts of the value chain like wealth managers’ front offices. 

THE SOLUTION

SIX Tax on Instrument enables clients to access up to 60 data fields per tax regime covering financial products such as equities, bonds, funds and structured products with attributes on income tax, wealth tax, capital gains and losses tax, and generic tax details. The service is designed to help advisors and portfolio managers achieve superior after-tax returns by providing insights about tax implications and costs, allowing them to optimize their clients’ investment portfolios.

The launch of the service meets a growing need among wealth advisors for detailed tax cost indicator information and additional tax categorization attributes to help them make projections for expected returns. SIX Tax on Instrument currently covers the UK, the US, Brazil, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and France tax jurisdictions. In the next couple of months, the firm plans to expand the service to a further 10 countries, including Austria, Italy and Portugal. The service will be available via standard reference data feed or via suitability platform/API to allow for easy integration into clients’ existing systems. SIX worked with partners Investment Navigator and Noveras to develop the service. 

WHAT’S TO COME

SIX will develop APIs and cloud technology to disseminate data and analytics.

It plans to become a leader in the ETF ecosystem.

It plans to become a trusted aggregator and producer of unique ESG content and services.

WHY THEY WON

While SIX can be described as anything but a newcomer to the financial services industry, the fact that it won this category illustrates just how important innovation and developing new products and services is to the Zurich-based firm. The new SIX Tax on Instrument service is arguably more pertinent to the buy side than it is to the sell side, although firms on both sides of the industry will see its value through greater levels of transparency around tax implications and costs, allowing them to optimize their clients’ investment portfolios.